Ex  Libris 
C.  K.  OGDEN 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

Microsoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/elementsofpractiOObousiala 


THE  ELEMENTS  OF  PRACTICAL 
PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 


THE    ELEMENTS 

OF     PRACTICAL 

PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 


BY 

PAUL     BOUSFIKLD, 

M.R.C.S     (Eng).     L.R.C.P.    (Lond.) 

Physician  t.)  the  London  Neurological  Clinic  (Ministry  of  Pensions), 

I. at<  Demonstrator  of  Mmbid  Anatomy,  St.  George's  Hospital, 

Late  M  O.  American  Women's  Hospital  for  Officers, 

etc  ,  etc. 


LONDON 

KEG  AN   PAUL.  TRENCH.  TRUBXER   &  CO.   LTD. 
N  E  W      YORK:       E.     P.     I)  U  T  T  O  N      &      C  0. 


373 


PREFACE 

The  object  of  this  work  is  to  give  an  account 
of  the  theory,  technique,  and  scope  of  psycho- 
analysis, in  such  a  form  that  its  essentials  may 
readily  be  understood  by  the  student  or 
practitioner  without  previous  systematic  reading 
in  psychology  and  psychotherapy. 

At  present  should  anyone  wish  to  study  the 
subject,  even  if  only  to  grasp  its  general  import, 
it  is  necessary  for  him  to  read  not  one,  but 
several,  large  volumes  on  the  matter,  each  of 
which  will  give  him  some  information,  but  each 
of  which  presupposes  that  the  reader  has 
already  mastered  essential  details  in  the  course 
of  previous  reading.  Added  to  this  the  ter- 
minology in  use  is  of  a  highly  technical  nature, 
and  to  the  beginner  who  has  to  refer  continuously 
to  a  dictionary  (which  often  does  not  contain  the 
word  required)  this  is  very  disconcerting,  and 
frequently  the  reader  is  left  with  vague  and 
mistaken  notions.  A  large  number  of  medical 
men  have  discussed  this  matter  with  me,  and 
have  explained  to  me  how  difficult  they  have 
found  it  to  understand  even  the  elements  of  the 


vi.  PREFACE 

subject,  and  as  a  result  I  feel  that  there  is  need 
of  a  concise  and  simple  work  on  it 
which  at  the  same  time  shall  avoid  as  far  as 
possible  technical  and  foreign  terms.  It  is  this 
object  that  I  have  striven  after  in  the  present 
work.  With  regard  to  terminology,  I  have 
attempted  to  use  ordinary  English  words  where- 
ever  possible,  but  for  the  use  of  those  who  propose 
to  read  other  works  on  the  subject  I  have 
included  a  glossary  of  the  technical  terms  in 
common  use. 

In  one  or  two  of  the  early  examples  of  the 
mechanism  of  formation  of  special  characteristics 
of  the  Psychoneuroses  I  have  either  invented 
simple  typical  cases  or  taken  the  liberty  of 
modifying  the  details  of  slightly  more  complex 
cases,  so  that  the  ideas  underlying  them  shall 
be  perfectly  plain  to  those  who  have  not  pre- 
viously studied  the  subject  ;  while  throughout 
the  earlier  chapters  on  the  unconscious  mind  I 
have  limited  my  choice  for  the  same  reason  to  a 
few  quite  simple  ideas  and  examples,  although 
more  complicated  material  might  sometimes 
have  conveyed  greater  proof  of  the  accuracy  of 
certain  theories.  It  must  be  understood  that 
these  examples  arc  not  cited  as  proofs 
of  the  theories  given  ;  such  proof  may  be  taken 
as  having  been  demonstrated  in  many  other 
larger  works,  and  1  have  merely  given  examples 


PREFACE  vii. 

to  demonstrate  these  theories  in    a  concise  and 
elementary  manner. 

As  probably  most  readers  know,  Frcnd  is  the 
originator  of  the  technique  and  theory  of  the 
psychoanalytic  system  ;  nevertheless,  there  are 
some  points  in  his  teaching  which  many  regard 
as  dogmatic  and  unproven,  and  a  few  of  these 
points  I  shall  mention  shortly  in  the  text.  Some 
persons  are  very  apt  to  take  for  granted  that  the 
whole  work  of  a  great  pioneer  is  accurate  and  final, 
and  this  is  dangerous  if  we  are  to  progress  and 
find  further  truth  ;  for  even  the  greatest  of 
scientists  occasionally  finds  evidence  which  does 
not  fit  in  with  his  theories  and  which  therefore 
he  tends  to  ignore  or  unconsciously  to  falsify, 
so  as  to  fit  it  in  with  his  other  ideas.  The  three 
notable  subjects  on  which  I  consider  Freud's 
evidence  to  be  insufficient  are  : — firstly,  in  his 
theory  of  complete  determinism  as  opposed  to 
Free  Will  ;  secondly,  in  his  statement  that  all 
Dreams  have  the  same  causative  factors  ;  and 
thirdly,  in  his  theory  that  sexual  desire  is  the 
fundamental  desire  underlying  all  other  desires 
and  emotions.  It  will  be  seen,  however,  that 
this  does  not  in  any  way  affect  our  acceptance 
of  his  technique,  his  theory  of  dreams  in  the 
great  majority  of  eases,  and  his  theory  of  the 
etiology  of  most  of  the  neuroses  and  psychoneu- 
roses.     To  him  must  always  be  eiven  the  credit 


viii.  PREFACE 

of  having  discovered  what  will  probably  prove 
to  be  one  of  the  most  significant  factors  in  the 
future  development  of  the  human  race.  The 
last  chapter  of  this  book  is  devoted  to  a  dis- 
cussion illustrating  possible  ways  in  which 
psycho-analysis  will  become  a  factor,  not  merely 
in  curing  the  neurosis  of  a  patient,  but  also  in 
discovering  deleterious  matter  in  the  mental 
attitudes  of  the  race  as  a  whole,  and  by  such 
discoveries  enable  us  gradually  to  reform  them. 

PAUL   BOUSFIELD. 

7,    Harley   Street,    W. 
January,  1920 


GLOSS  A  R  Y 


Abasia.     Inability  to  walk. 

A  br taction.  The  process  of  working  off  the  emotion  arising 
out  of  an  unpleasant  experience  by  living  through 
the  incident   again. 

Affect.  Feeling.  The  energy  belonging  to  emotion.  The 
unit  of  psychic  energy  attached  to  an  idea. 

Agoraphobia.     Morbid  fear  of  open  spaces. 

Algolagnia.  Abnormal  activity  of  sexual  impulse,  with  a 
desire  for  experiencing  or  causing  pain.  Includes 
Sadism  and  Masochism. 

Allo-crotism.  Erotic  feelings  of  any  kind  directed  towards 
another  person  (of  either  sex). 

Ambivalence.     The  coexistence  of  opposed  feeling.-*. 

Amnesia.  A  definite  complete  loss  of  memory  for  a  given 
period  or  event. 

AncBsthcsia.     Loss  of  physical  sensation. 

Anal-crvticism.     Erotic  emotions  caused  by  stimulation  of 

the  anal  regions. 

Aphonia.     Inability  to  speak. 

Astasia.     Inability  to  stand. 

Auto-erotism.  Erotic  feelings  of  anv  kind  generated  m 
and  directed   towards  oneself. 

Bisexual,  (i).  Pertaining  li>.  or  containing,  the  charac- 
teristics of  both  >«  v.-,  whether  phvsicallv  or 
mentally.  (_').  Having  erotic  feelings  for  members 
of  both  sexes. 

ix 


x  GLOSSARY 

Catharsis.  A  mental  purging  brought  about  by  bringing 
unpleasant  thoughts  or  experiences  to  the  surface  : 
cj.  Abreaction. 

Cloacal  Erotism.  Erotic  emotions  caused  by  stimulating 
any  of  those  parts  originally  enclosed  in  the 
cloaca,  e.g.,  anus,  vagina,  urethra. 

Cloaca  Theory.  The  infantile  belief  concerning  birth  per 
rectum. 

Censor.  The  repressing  force  in  the  mind  which  tends  to 
prevent  the  unpleasant  from  becoming  conscious. 

Claustrophobia.     Morbid  fear  of  enclosed  spaces. 

Coitus  interruplus.  The  withdrawal  of  the  male  organ 
before  the  orgasm,  so  that  emission  takes  place 
outside. 

Coitus  reservatus.  Delayed  coitus,  in  which  one  of  the 
parties  deliberately  holds  back  the  orgasm,  or  in 
which  orgasm  does  not  take  place. 

Complex.  A  system  or  group  of  ideas  bearing  upon  one 
central  idea,  the  whole  or  a  part  of  which  system  is 
repressed  together  with  its  emotional  tone. 

Condensation.  The  unconscious  fusion  of  several  ideas,  so 
as  to  form  one  composite  whole,  e.g.,  a  composite 
photograph  is  one  final  portrait  though  composed 
of  many  super-imposed  original  photographs. 

Consultation.     Any  system,  or  group,  of  ideas  not  repressed. 

Conversion.  The  expression  of  repressed  (unpleasant) 
emotional  ideas  by  means  of  a  physical  manifes- 
tation. 

Coprophilia.     Interest  in  the  products  of  excretion. 

Displacement.  The  transferance  of  psychic  energy  or 
feeling  from  one  idea  to  another  but  without 
alteration  in  the  original  emotional  tone  :  cj. 
Sublimation. 

Erogenous  Zone.  Any  special  area  of  the  body  which 
may,  when  stimulated,  give  rise  to  erotic 
emotions. 


GLOSSARY  xi 

Euphoria.     A  feeling  of  well-being. 

Exhibitionism.  Erotic  gratification  in  exhibiting  the  genital 
organs  or  some  other  erogenous  zone. 

Fetishism.  Erotic  gratification  in  connection  with  a  part 
only  of  the  loved  object's  clothing,  e.g.,  a  hand- 
kerchief or  glove. 

Hetero-erotism.     See   Allo-erotism. 

Heterosexual ity.  Erotic  desires  towards  one  of  the  opposite 
sex  (the  normal  adult  condition). 

Homosexuality.  Erotic  desires  towards  one  of  the  same 
sex  (an  infantile  or  primitive  condition,  which  may 
persist  into  adult  life). 

Idiogamist.  A  man  potent  with  only  one  particular 
woman  (or  limited  type  of  women)  and  impotent 
with  all  others. 

Incest.  A  sexual  act  with,  or  erotic  desires  towards,  a  near 
relative. 

Inirojcdion.  The  absorbtion  of  external  events  into  one- 
self, so  that  one  reacts  to  these  events  as  though 
they  took  place  in  or  were  part  of  one's  own  self. 

Libido.  Erotic  desire  :  used  vaguely  by  sonic  writer-  to 
include  the  whole  "  life  desire  "  or  the  "  psychic 
energy  "  entailed  in  gratifying  it  ;  and  used  by 
others  in  a  much  more  restricted  sense,  the  degree 
of  which  varies  with  the  writer. 

Masochism.  Sexual  perversion,  with  enjoyment  of  being 
cruelly  treated. 

Masturbation.  The  auto-erotic  manipulation  of  one'.-  own 
reproductive  organs  for  the  purpose  of  procuring  a 
sexual  orgasm. 

Narcissism.  Self-worship.  Probably  pre-natal  in  origin, 
and  for  a  >hort  period  non-sexual.  It  -non.  how- 
ever, attaches  itself  to  the  auto-erotic  complexes 
and  constellations. 

Nosophobia.     Fear  of  disease. 

Oral  Erotism.  Erotic  emotions  caused  by  stimulation  of 
the  mouth  or  lips. 


xii  GLOSSARY 

Projection.  Ascribing  one's  own  inner  complexes  to  other 
persons,  unconsciously  throwing  upon  the  outer 
world  and  ascribing  to  it  the  working  of  one's  own 
mind. 

Rationalization.  The  invention  of  reasons  for  ideas  or 
actions  when  the  real  motive  is  not  recognised 
consciously. 

Regression.  Psychic  reversion  to  an  earlier  or  more  primi- 
tive type  of  mental  life,  signalized  by  more  primi- 
tive forms  of  energic  expression  (generally  erotic). 

Repression.  Preventing  unpleasant  ideas  and  conflicts  from 
becoming  conscious,  or  forcing  such  from  the  con- 
scious content  of  the  mind  if  they  had  already 
become    conscious. 

Resistance.  The  obstructive  force  tending  to  keep  un- 
pleasant material  repressed  and  refusing  to  allow 
such  material  to  enter  the  conscious  mind.  "  The 
C'ensor." 

Sadism.  The  erotic  enjoyment  of  causing  pain,  mental  or 
physical  :   cf.  Masochism. 

Sublimation.  The  transference  of  erotic  energy  from  a 
sexual  to  a  non-sexual  objective,  the  latter  being 
useful  socially.  It  differs  from  Displacement  in 
that  the  latter  merely  transfers  erotic  energy  from 
one  sexual  objective  to  another  sexual  objective 
which  is  less  obvious  to  the  conscious  mind  as  being 
sexual. 

Transference.  The  act  of  transfering  (displacing)  psychic 
energy  from  one  idea  to  another.  In  the  case  of 
analysis,  from  one  person  to  the  psychoanalyst. 

Trauma.     Injury,  psychic  or  physical. 

Voyeur.  Erotic  gratification  in  looking  at  the  genital 
orpins  <>r  some  other  erogenous  zone. 

Zoophilia  Eroticism.  Erotic  gratification  in  touching, 
pelting,  etc.,  animals. 


ERRATA. 

Pase   1  1.     Line  25. 

For    ••  repressed   -roup  of  constellation 
Read  "repressed  ijroup  or  constellation. 

Page  23.     Line   17. 

For   "hysterics"    read   "hysterias." 

Page  53.     Line  22. 

For  "hysterics"   read   "hysterias." 


Elements   of  Practical 
Psycho-Analysis 

CHAPTER    I 

The  Unconscious  Mind 

Before  defining  psycho-analysis  or  discussing 
its  technique,  it  is  essential  that  we  should  have 
a  clear  conception  of  the  mind  as  regards  its 
unconscious  elements,  and  the  functions  of  these 
with  reference  to  ideas,   desires  and  emotions. 

Freud  and  other  psychologists  have  divided 
the  mind  into  several  constituents  :  conscious, 
fore-conscious,  subconscious,  unconscious  and 
other  terms  are  frequently  met  with,  but  for 
our  purpose  a  simple  division  into  conscious  and 
unconscious  will  suffice.  The  CONSCIOUS 
MINI)  needs  but  little  discussion  here.  It  is 
that  part  of  the  mind  which  knows 
and  feels  and  reasons  in  the  immediate  present, 
and  which  defines  itself  sufficiently  i<»r  elemen- 
tary   purposes  :     it    is    conscious. 

The  UNCONSCIOUS  MIND  is,  however, 
more  elusive,  and  requires  a  good  deal  of  con- 
sideration. In  the  fust  plate,  it  is  the  store- 
house of  facts  and  ideas  — in  other  words,  mem- 

x 


2  THE    UNCONSCIOUS    MIND 

ory.  At  any  given  moment  we  have  in  our 
conscious  mind  very  few  memories  ;  we  are 
not  aware  of  the  vast  number  of  experiences 
through  which  we  have  passed  during  our  lives. 
We  know,  however,  that  by  turning  our  attention 
in  the  desired  direction,  we  can  find  and  bring 
to  consciousness  a  very  great  number  of  these 
memories.  Most  of  the  time,  however,  it  is 
obvious  that  we  are  certainly  not  conscious 
of  them.  These  memories  of  the  past  may  be 
said  to  be  "  stored  "  in  the  unconscious  part 
of  the  mind. 

This  brings  us  to  the  point  that,  while  we  can, 
by  making  the  requisite  effort  bring  into  the 
conscious  mind  many  memories,  and  while  other 
past  facts  are  only  brought  to  mind  by  some 
chance  association  with  external  stimuli,  there 
arc  yet  other  experiences  which  we  have  totally 
forgotten,  and  which  are  never  revived  as  con- 
scious memories. 

Let  us  consider  examples  of  these  types  of 
memory  and  trace  some  of  the  underlying 
causes. 

In  the  first  place,  one  can  remember  with 
very  little  effort  with  whom  one  dined  last 
Saturday  evening.  The  event  is  what  is  com- 
monly termed  "  still  fresh  in  the  memory." 
One  has  a  good  deal  more  difficulty  in  remember- 
ing,   however,    which    was    the    last    play    one 


THE    UNCONSCIOUS    MIND  3 

witnessed  at  a  theatre.  The  event  took  place 
some  weeks  ago,  and  one  has  been  to  several 
theatres  in  the  last  few  months.  My  conscious 
method  of  remembering  my  last  visit  to  the 
theatre  is  as  follows.  I  try  to  remember  firstly 
when  it  occurred,  secondly  with  whom  I  went, 
thirdly  whether  I  dined  at  home  that  evening, 
fourthly  what  work  I  was  doing  at  that  period 
and"  how  I  could  possibly  have  managed  to  find 
time  for  a  theatre,  since  I  was  particularly  busy 
about  that  period,  and  so  forth.  In  other 
words,  one  gropes  round  for  a  cine,  i.e.,  an 
association  connected  with  it.  Perhaps  my 
last  thought  about  work  is  that  which  gives 
me  my  association — or  rather,  train  of  as- 
sociations ;  it  runs  thus  :  "  Certainly  T  was 
very  busy,  but  now  I  remember  one  of  my 
patients  could  not  come  to  see  me;  he  telephoned 
to  me  ;  yes,  and  I  telephoned  to  my  brother 
and  asked  him  to  meet  me  at  the  club.  We 
dined  there  and  discussed  our  plans,  and  finally 
went  to  His  Majesty's  theatre  to  see  '  Hamlet.' 

.We  see  at  once  then  that  here  our  memory 
depends  on  finding  some  incident  in  association 
with  the  fact  we  are  seeking,  and  following  up 
that  association  with  others.  It  may  be  that 
ones  thoughts  How  rapidly  and  that  the  result 
appears  to  '  Hash  "  into  ones  mind,  but 
however  this  may  be,  the  evidence  tends  to  show 


4  THE    UNCONSCIOUS    MIND 

that  all  memories  depend  upon  such  a  train 
of  associations.  And  these  associations  bring 
into  the  conscious  mind  those  facts  which 
were  previously  hidden  away  in  the  unconscious 
mind. 

As  an  example  of  those  memories  which  require 
an  external  stimulus  to  bring  them  into  con- 
sciousness the  following  may  be  cited.  I  remem- 
ber distinctly  an  advertisement  for  a  certain 
tooth  paste,  but  no  amount  of  groping  for 
associations  enables  me  to  locate  the  place  where 
I  saw  it.  By  chance  while  I  am  walking  down 
the  road  I  see  a  model  battleship  in  a  shop 
window  :  at  once  there  rushes  to  my  mind  the 
fact  that  next  to  the  advertisement  for  the  tooth 
paste  was  another  one  extolling  a  certain  whiskey 
in  which  a  battleship  figured  in  the  foreground. 
I  farther  remember  I  discussed  the  scarcity  of 
whiskey  with  a  friend  while  we  were  travelling 
on  the  underground  railway  and  had  just  got 
out  at  Oxford  Circus.  That  was  where  I  saw 
the  advertisement  in  question. 

Here  we  find  that  the  train  of  association 
takes  us  right  to  our  objective,  once  we  find  a 
starting  point.  We  might  in  time  have  found 
one  somewhere  in  the  mind,  instead  of  exter- 
nally, but  the  event  itself  was  trivial  and  we 
had  no  outstanding  associations  on  which  we 
could    seize    readily.     The    external    stimulus, 


THE    UNCONSCIOUS    MIND  5 

however,  supplied  the  first  association,  and  the 
memory  quickly  followed  it  into  consciousness. 

We  now  come  to  the  third  example.  There 
are  obviously  some  experiences  which  no  ordin- 
ary method  will  bring  into  consciousness.  If 
one  were  to  be  asked  when  one  had  dined  on  the 
17th  of  March,  1901,  it  is  extremely  unlikely 
that  one  would  be  able  to  remember.  The 
memory  is  apparently  lost,  and  for  ever.  Never- 
theless, did  one  happen  to  keep  a  detailed 
diary  of  one's  doings,  one  might  discover  the 
hidden  fact,  and  by  the  many  associations  in 
the  diary  actually  then  recall  the  fact. 

Psycho-analysis  shows  us  that  by  suitable 
technique  we  actually  can  rceover  memories 
far  back  in  childhood,  apparently  buried  for 
ever,  when  the  right  train  of  associations  is 
tapped.  Under  hypnosis  we  can  similarly  call 
back  memories  with  a  detail  and  exactitude  which 
is  scarcely  believable  until  it  has  been  tested. 
Nothing  is  apparently  really  forgotten.  Ever\ 
word  in  a  conversation  which  took  place  20 
years  ago,  may  be  readily  and  accurately 
brought  to  mind  in  some  hypnotized  subjects. 

This  now  leads  us  to  consider  the  various 
reasons  why  we  should  ever  have  lost  the  train 
of  associations  leading  to  these  forgotten  ex- 
periences. ( )ne  reason  we  already  know  :  an 
event  was  of  no  importance  and  only  a  trivial 

B 


6  THE    UNCONSCIOUS    MIND 

mental  association  was  formed  which  in  itself 
takes  much  seeking. 

There  are,  however,  other  reasons  why  we  lose 
our  associations  and  forget  events  ;  these  we  will 
now  proceed  to  discuss. 

We  often  forget  things  because  either  we  do  not 
like  to  remember  them,  or  else  they  are  associated 
with  something  which  we  do  not  like  to  remember. 
This  is  particularly  the  case  with  mental  conflicts, 
which  we  refuse  to  solve  consciously  on  the  grounds 
that  whatever  solution  we  arrived  at  would  be 
unpleasant. 

This  form  of  forgetting  we  term  repression. 
The  unpleasant  memory  and  associations  which 
might  call  it  to  mind  are  repressed  from  the  con- 
scious into  the  unconscious. 

Darwin  writes  in   his  autobiography  : 

"  I  had,  during  many  years,  followed  a 
golden  rule,  namely,  that  whenever  a  published 
fact,  a  new  observation  or  thought  came  across 
me,  which  was  opposed  to  my  general  results, 
to  make  a  memorandum  of  it  without  fail 
and  at  once  ;  for  I  had  found  by  experience 
that  such  facts  and  thoughts  were  far  more 
apt  to  escape  from  the  memory  than  favour- 
able ones." 

In  these  cases  of  forgetting — i.e.,  by  repression, 
there  is  always  a  conflict  between  the  conscious 
will  and  the  unconscious  counter-will.     We  shall 


THE    UNCONSCIOUS    MIND  7 

see  later  that  the  unconscious  will  is  a  very 
real  factor. 

The  conscious  will  feebly  tries  to  remember, 
while  the  unconscious  counter-will  emphatically 
says  :  '  This  is  unpleasant  ;  it  shall  not  be 
remembered."  An  excellent  example  is  related 
by  Maeder.  A  house  surgeon  had  a  business 
appointment  in  town,  but  he  was  not  allowed 
to  leave  the  hospital  until  his  chief,  who  was  out 
to  dinner,  should  return  later  in  the  evening. 
As  his  appointment  in  town  was  important  he 
decided  to  brave  the  anger  of  his  chief  and  go 
into  town.  When  lie  returned  later  he  found 
to  his  astonishment  that  he  had  left  the1  light 
in  his  room  burning— a  tiling  he  had  never  done 
before,  although  he  had  occupied  that  room  for 
two  years.  On  thinking  the  matter  over  he 
soon  realized  why  he  had  done  this.  His 
chief  in  passing  the  window  to  his  own  house 
would  see  the  light  burning  and  imagine  that 
his  house  surgeon  was  within.  The  unconscious 
mind  had  determined  that  the  turning  out  <>f 
the   light   should    be    forgotten    (repressed). 

Examples  in  everyday  life  are  very  common. 
We  mislay  bills  very  readily  :  rarely  do  we 
mislay  a  cheque.  We  forget  to  post  letters 
entrusted  to  us  against  our  will  ;  but  we  do 
not  forget  to  post  our  own  love  letters. 

An    example    from    my    own    experience    will 


8  THE    UNCONSCIOUS    MIND 

illustrate  a  common  type  of  this  repression. 
I  had  to  attend  a  lecture  on  Psychotherapy  given 
by  a  man  with  whose  views  I  totally  disagreed, 
and  which  I  did  not  wish  to  attend,  but  felt 
compelled  to  do  in  an  official  capacity.  First 
of  all  I  wrote  the  time  of  the  lecture  in  my 
engagement  book  a  week  late.  On  discovering 
this  I  omitted  for  a  moment  to  rectify  it,  and 
when  I  eventually  did  so,  I  put  it  down  for 
Tuesday  instead  of  Thursday.  Later,  on  being 
asked  by  several  friends  on  which  day  the 
lecture  was,  I  told  them  that  it  was  on  Tuesday 
instead  of  Thursday  (thus  unconsciously  trying 
to  make  them  also  miss  the  lecture).  Finally 
I  made  an  appointment  for  a  patient  at  the 
real  time  appointed  for  the  lecture.  Now  I  had 
attended  regularly  most  of  the  lectures  at  the 
institution  in  question  and  had  generally  looked 
forward  to  them.  It  was  only  in  the  case  of 
this  one  lecture,  which  I  consciously  disliked 
yet  had  decided  to  attend,  that  my  unconscious 
counter-will  attempted  time  after  time  to  pre- 
vent my  so  doing. 

The  examples  of  the  repression  of  memory 
so  far  given  apply  only  to  small  and  compara- 
tively unimportant  matters,  but  the  same 
principles  hold  good  in  very  important  or  out- 
standing features  of  life.  Very  many  patients 
suffering  from  "  shell  shock  "  and  other  nervous 


THE    UNCONSCIOUS    MIND  9 

diseases  of  the  war  exhibit  lapses  of  memory 
comprising  whole  weeks  or  months  of  their 
service  on  the  one  hand  or  some  unutterably 
horrible  or  disgusting  incident  on  the  other 
hand — such  matters  as  one  would  expect  to  be 
indelibly  impressed  upon  the  mind.  And  I 
have  had  patients  who  had  completely  forgotten 
the  whole  of  their  past  lives. 

One  such  patient  of  mine  had  completely 
forgotten  how  his  two  great  friends  had  come 
by  their  death,  although  he  was  standing  near 
them  at  the  time  and  saw  the  shell  explode 
which  had  killed  them  both.  One  of  his  friends 
had  had  the  whole  of  the  back  of  his  head  blown 
away,  and  the  other  his  abdomen  ripped  open. 
This  horrible  event  was  completely  repressed 
from  conscious  memory  as  well  as  associations 
connected  with  the  event  which  might  have  led  to 
its  remembrance.  A  complete  small  section  of 
his  life  was  "  split  off  from  consciousness  "  and 
forgotten  (amnesia).  These  memories  were 
brought  back  gradually  by  the  method  of  free 
association  practised  in  psycho-analysis.  I  will 
try  and  illustrate  by  a  simple  example  how 
this  "  splitting  of  consciousness  "  or  dissociation 
might  take  place. 

If  I  write  down  a  list  of  eight  words  each 
absolutely  unconnected  with  one  another,  the 
average  reader  will  find  it  very  difficult   after 


io  The  unconscious  mind 

reading  the  list  through  once  to  remember  the 
words  in  their  written  order,  and  to  repeat  the 
list  either  backwards  or  forwards,  for  example  : 

kettle 

bluebell 

writing-desk 

engine 

flower- pot 

poultice 

table 

poker 
There  is  no  association  between  each  word,  and 
one  word  does  not  tend  to  bring  the  next  into 
consciousness. 

If,  however,  I  use  a  list  of  words  each  one  of 
which  is  associated  with  the  next  in  some 
definite  manner  it  will  be  found  comparatively 
easy  to  repeat  that  list  either  backwards  or 
forwards  after  once  reading  it : — 

ink 

black 

mourning 

death 

ghost 

Hamlet 

Shakespeare 

Bacon 
There  is  in   this  list  some   definite  association 
between  each  word,  and  as  one  word  is  spoken 


THE    UNCONSCIOUS    MIND  n 

it  brings  up  automatically  and  with  little  effort 
the  next  word  out  of  the  unconscious.  Suppose 
now  the  memories  of  "  death  "  and  "  ghost "  to  be 
unpleasant --that  we  wish  to  repress  the  ideas. 
We  may  unconsciously  falsify  our  association  at 
the  word  "mourning"  and  thus  leave  out 
one  letter  and  substitute  the  word  "  morning." 
This  might  be  done  in  several  ways  :  either 
by  means  of  a  play  on  words  we  might  inter- 
polate the  word  "  morning  "  thus  : 

ink 

black 

mourning 

morning 
or  by  adding  an  extra  association,  thus  : 

ink 

black 

night 

morning 
In   either  case   the  associations  of  "morning' 
are  so  absolutely  different  from  those  of  "  mourn- 
ing "  that  the  rest  of  the  words  are  no  longer 
called  into  consciousness.     We  have  dissociated 
them.     They  are  now  repressed. 

A   repressed  group  of  constellation  of  ideas    is         /■ 
technically  known  as  a   Complex. 

Extreme  cases  of  dissociation  have  been 
known  to  bring  about  what  is  known  as  "  dual 
personalities,"  in  which  one  person  appears  to 


12  THE    UNCONSCIOUS    MIND 

live  two  completely  separate  lives  with  two 
quite  dissimilar  sets  of  characteristics  and 
memories  An  excellent  example  of  this  is 
given  by  R.  L.  Stevenson  in  "  Dr.  Jek}dl  and 
Mr.  Hyde."  -The  different  characteristics  of  the 
two  personalities  in  all  such  cases  are  accounted 
for  by  the  fact  that  in  one  case  the  conscious 
will  is  in  the  ascendency,  and  in  the  other  the 
unconscious  counter-will.  (The  unconscious  will 
is  primarily  selfish,  self-seeking  and  desirous  of 
defending  the  person  from  unpleasantness  as 
far  as  possible.  We  shall  discuss  this,  however, 
at  a  later  period). 

The  unconscious  mind,  however,  has  far  more 
functions  than  that  of  conserving  memories,  or 
of  falsifying  or  repressing  them.  In  the 
examples  given  we  can  observe  that  not  only 
have  memories  been  repressed  unconsciously, 
but  that  this  unconscious  process  has  involved 
the  factors  of  will,  intellect,  desire  and  emotion. 
Apart  from  exercising  these  functions,  however, 
the  unconscious  mind  is  capable  of  working  in 
some  respects  more  efficiently  than  the  con- 
scious mind.  It  can  reason  clearly,  it  can 
control  to  some  extent  the  physiological 
functions  of  the  body,  it  can  carry  out  com- 
plicated automatic  actions  known  as  "  habits," 
it  can  to  some  extent  register  the  thoughts  of 
others  by  a  "  sixth  sense/'   as  yet  but  little 


THE    UNCONSCIOUS    MIND  13 

understood,  the  process  being  known  as  telepathy. 

As  examples  of  unconscious  reasoning  we 
already  have  the  case  of  the  house  surgeon  who 
omitted  to  turn  out  the  light  in  his  room.  But 
this,  though  cunning  reasoning,  was  not  on  a 
very  high  level.  A  friend  of  mine  once  told  me 
that  he  had  spent  several  days  in  trying  to  work 
out  a  chess  problem  without  success.  One 
morning  he  woke  up  with  a  picture  in  his  mind 
of  the  exact  moves  which  he  must  make.  He 
had  solved  the  problem  in  his  sleep  uncon- 
sciously, and  with  no  recollection  on  waking  of 
any  conscious  effort  at  reaching  this  solution. 
In  my  own  experience  as  a  schoolboy,  I  failed 
to  solve  a  problem  of  Euclid  during  an  examina- 
tion. On  the  morning  afterwards  the  solution 
Hashed  through  my  brain  suddenly  as  I  lay  in 
bed.  Whether  I  had  solved  this  in  my  sleep, 
or  whether  it  was  solved  in  bed  as  I  lay  awake, 
I  am  not  prepared  to  say,  but  this  much  is 
quite  certain — I  made  no  conscious  effort  at 
reasoning  ;  my  mind  merely  wandered  lazily 
in  the  direction  of  the  previous  day's  failure, 
and  almost  instantaneously  the  right  solution 
appeared  without  an  effort.  No  doubt  many 
readers  will  have  experienced  similar  examples 
of  unconscious  reasoning  of  this  type. 

As  regards  the  unconscious  control  of  physical 
functions    a   well    known    example   is   the    fact 


14  THE    UNCONSCIOUS    MIND 

that  on  watching  somebody  suck  a  lemon  our 
own  mouths  will  "  water."  Suggestion, 
whether  under  hypnosis  or  not,  can  cause 
physiological  action  to  be  inhibited  or  increased. 
x\s  a  student  I  once  gave  a  fellow  student  who 
suffered  from  constipation  two  pills  made  of 
bread,  assuring  him  that  they  were  composed 
of  a  very  powerful  aperient.  He  took  them 
gratefully,  suffered  a  good  deal  of  colic,  and 
they  acted  as  I  had  suggested.  I  may  add  that 
my  friend  was  readily  hypnotisable  and  a  good 
recipient  of  "  suggestion."  This  does  not,  how- 
ever, detract  from  the  fact  that,  giving  no 
further  conscious  thought  to  the  matter,  his 
unconscious  mind  controlled  the  physiological 
action  of  his  intestines.  Many  wonderful  cures 
by  means  of  patent  medicines  obviously  take 
place  in  a  similar  manner.  I  give  only  one  or 
two  simple  instances  of  these  various  functions 
of  the  unconscious  mind,  because  in  this  chapter 
I  wish  merely  to  demonstrate  shortly  its  scope 
and  widespread  power.  We  shall  then  more 
clearly  apprehend  in  future  chapters  the  more 
complex  mechanisms  involved  in  the  neuroses 
and  psychoneuroses. 

Referring  now  to  complex  actions,  including 
those  which  come  within  the  term  "  habit," 
one  need  only  cite  as  an  example  the  playing  of 
an  accomplished  pianist.     He  reads  the  music 


THE    UNCONSCIOUS    MIND  15 

in  front  of  him  consciously,  but  the  translation 
of  this  through  the  brain  and  into  the  fingers 
so  as  to  produce  a  series  of  extremely  rapid  and 
complicated  movements  on  the  keyboard  of 
the  piano  is  quite  unconscious.  He  does  not 
look  at  the  keys  of  the  piano  ;  he  does  not  think, 
"  With  which  finger  shall  I  play  this  note,  or 
that  ?  '  The  sorting  oat  of  the  fingering  and 
adaptation  of  it  to  the  keys  as  he  reads  a  new 
piece  of  music  is  something  which  takes  place 
entirely  in  his  unconscious  mind. 

I  have  mentioned  the  subject  of  thought- 
transference  or  telepathy  as  one  of  the  functions 
of  the  unconscious  mind.  I  have  done  so  not 
because  it  is  of  very  much  importance,  but 
because  Freud  and  other  writers  ignore  its 
existence,  and  because  I  have  had  definite 
proof  that  it  occupies  a  place,  though  at  present 
a  small  one,  in  the  list  of  functions  of  the  un- 
conscious mind,  and  thus  modifies  slightly  one 
or  two  of  the  more  dogmatic  statements  of 
these  writers  on  points  to  be  discussed  in  a 
future  chapter.  I  refer  to  the  classification  of 
dreams  and   hallucinations. 

I  am  fortunate  in  possessing  a  friend  who 
has  developed  telepathic  powers  to  a  consider- 
able degree,  and  from  boyhood  upwards,  I  and 
my  relatives  have  had  every  opportunity  of 
testing   his   powers   under  our  own   conditions. 


16  THE    UNCONSCIOUS    MIND 

We  have  grown  to  look  upon  his  powers  as  some- 
thing more  or  less  ordinary,  and  indeed  have 
devised  a  new  drawing-room  game  based  upon 
them.  I  wish  to  give  here  one  or  two  of  the 
experiments  which  have  taken  place,  not  once 
only  but  very  many  times.  In  the  following 
paragraphs  I  refer  to  him  as  Mr.  X. 

Mr.  X  is  sent  into  an  adjoining  room  quite 
out  of  earshot,  while  we  then  decide  upon  some 
trivial  action  which  he  shall  perform,  such  as 
picking  up  the  poker  and  carrying  it  across  the 
room  and  presenting  it  to  Mrs.  B.  Mr.  X, 
blindfolded,  is  now  called  into  the  room.  No- 
body touches  him.  Everyone  sits  perfectly 
quiet,  no  sound  or  word  of  any  kind  is  spoken. 
Those  sitting  in  the  room  now  "  will  "  his  move- 
ments, i.e.,  first  that  he  shall  walk  to  the  right 
spot  where  lies  the  poker,  then  that  he  shall 
stoop,  then  stretch  out  his  arm  in  the  right 
direction,  and  so  forth.  As  a  rule,  with  very 
little  hesitation  the  whole  performance  is  gone 
through  without  a  hitch.  Such  experiments, 
however,  must  be  fairly  simple  in  character  ; 
thus,  while  we  can  make  Mr.  X  walk  to  the 
piano,  open  it  and  sit  down,  we  have  never 
succeeded  in  conveying  to  his  mind  a  particular 
tune  which  we  wish  him  to  play.  During  these 
experiments  he  describes  his  own  part  as  con- 
sisting  in    "  making    his    mind    a    blank  "    and 


THE    UNCONSCIOUS    MIND  17 

moving  as  if  under  compulsion.  As  the  sitters 
are  not  always  the  same  on  all  occasions  there 
is  no  possibility  of  any  system  of  signs. 

A  variant  of  this  experiment  is  as  follows  : 
two  groups  of  persons  are  formed.  One  group 
settles  upon  one  set  of  actions,  say,  that  Mr.  X 
shall  take  the  poker  and  present  it  to  Mrs.  B. 
The  other  group  selects  a  different  set  of  actions 
— perhaps  that  he  shall  remove  a  hairpin  from 
the  head  of  Mrs.  C  and  place  it  on  a  given  chair. 
When  Mr.  X  comes  in  a  contest  thus  takes  place. 
Perhaps,  after  a  pause,  the  concentrated  efforts 
of  the  first  group  succeed  in  getting  him  to  pick 
up  the  poker.  There  may  be  then  a  feeling  of 
triumph  and  relief  in  that  group,  with  a  conse- 
quent momentary  relaxation  of  concentration. 
Immediately  this  takes  place  Mr.  X  will  perform 
part  of  the  plan  formed  by  the  second  group  ; 
he  will  rush  to  the  chair  and  place  the  poker 
on  the  chair  where  the  hairpin  should  have 
been  placed.  A  variety  of  similar  experiments 
have  taken  place. 

Perhaps  the  most  convincing  and  at  the  same 
time  one  of  the  simplest  experiments  is  as  fol- 
lows, and  it  is  one  which  absolutely  prevents 
any  trickery  whatsoever. 

Mr.  X  sits  in  a  chair  with  his  back  to  me 
(or  any  other  suitable  person)  ;  he  is  at  one 
side  of  a  room  and  I  am  at  the  other.     There 


18  THE    UNCONSCIOUS    MIND 

need  be  no  other  person  in  the  room.  I  take 
a  pack  of  cards,  shuffle  it,  look  at  one  card, 
concentrate  my  mind  upon  it,  and  say  simply 
the  one  word  "  Now  !  "  Mr.  X  at  the  other 
side  of  the  room,  with  his  back  to  me  (or  blind- 
folded) names  the  card  in  detail,  thus,  "  Queen 
of  Hearts."  And  so  we  proceeded  through  the 
whole  pack.  The  only  word  spoken  is  "  Now  !  " 
Mr.  X  never  gets  all  the  cards  right  ;  frequently 
there  are  mistakes,  but  the  majority  of  the 
cards  are  named  correctly.  To  anyone  who 
has  performed  such  experiments  as  these,  time 
after  time,  there  can  be  no  doubt  about  the 
existence  of  telepathy,  and  that  it  merits  a 
place  in  the  functions  of  the  unconscious  mind. 
One  can  merely  state  that  there  is  a  sixth  sense 
— the  telepathic  sense — but  its  exact  method 
of  action  is  as  yet  veiled  from  us.  This  aspect 
of  the  unconscious  mind  will,  however,  not 
enter  materially  into  our  work  of  psycho- 
analysis. It  is  mentioned  here  merely  to  convey 
a  more  complete  idea  of  the  complex  actions 
which  are  continually  taking  place  uncon- 
sciously within  us. 

In  all  the  examples  I  have  hitherto  given 
of  unconscious  activity  it  will  be  noticed  that 
nothing  of  an  unselfish  nature  is  apparent. 
Two  fundamental  ruling  instincts  are  con- 
stantlv  at  work  in  our  unconscious  mind,   as 


THE    UNCONSCIOUS    MIND  iq 

they  have  been  in  the  unconscious. of  our  remote 
ancestors  right  back  to  the  simplest  forms  of 
life.  These  are  the  instincts  of  self-preservation 
and  of  propagation — the  desire  to  preserve  life 
and  to  propagate  the  species.  They  are  ex- 
hibited in  every  child  from  the  tenderest  years, 
and  persist  into  old  age.  The  "  purest  minded  " 
of  persons,  who  never  gives  a  thought  to  sexual 
matters,  or  the  saint  who  welcomes  martyrdom, 
still  possess  these  instincts  and  their  various 
modified  desires,  though  these  may  be  totally 
repressed,  or  otherwise  disguised,  as  we  shall 
see  in  later  chapters.  As  we  proceed  with  our 
investigations  we  shall  find  that  in  cases  where 
the  unconscious  will  or  desires  are  discoverable, 
self-centred  motives  are  for  the  most  part 
present.  The  unconscious  mind,  in  other  words, 
is  largely  ego-centric.  It  attempts  continuously 
to  defend  the  self,  or  to  obtain  pleasures,  gratify 
desires,  get  rid  of  unpleasant  conflicts,  etc. 
The  unconscious  mind  is  primitive  in  its  origin 
and  often  brutal.  Even  in  the  greatest  saint 
on  earth  docs  this  hold  good  :  if  we  analyse  his 
unconscious  acts  we  shall  discover  the  many 
complex  ego-centric  motives. 

SUMMARY. 

I.     hi    the    unconscious    mind    ivill .    intelligence, 
desire    and    some    oilier    attributes    oj    the 


20  THE    UNCONSCIOUS    MIND 

conscious  mind  are  developed  in  a  high 
degree. 

2.  The  unconscious  mind  is  the  seat  of  memory, 

habit  and  other  functions  not  present  at 
all  in  the  conscious  mind. 

3.  Insoluble    and    unpleasant    mental    conflicts, 

ideas  and  desires  may  become  repressed 
and  completely  forgotten,  together  with 
associations  which  might  tend  to  revive 
them. 

4.  Memories  long  forgotten  or  repressed  may  be 

brought  into  the  conscious  mind  again  by 
finding  suitable  associations. 

5.  The    unconscious    mind    conflicts   frequently 

with  the  conscious  mind,  and  where  the 
unconscious  will  (counter-will)  is  stronger 
than  the  conscious  will,  memories,  reso- 
lutions and  unpleasant  material  may  be 
repressed  from  the  conscious  into  the  un- 
conscious and  unconscious  desires  may  be 
satisfied. 

6.  The  unconscious  mind  is  always  to  a  great 

degree  primitive  and  self-centred. 


CHAPTER     II 

Desires    and    Psychic    Energy 

A  large  part  of  every  one's  life  is  devoted  to 
wishing  and  attempting  to  gratify  wishes.  De- 
sire of  one  kind  or  another  rules  the  major 
portion  of  our  time,  and  these  desires  may  be 
very  varied  in  character.  The  dipsomaniac  is 
constantly  desiring  alcohol,  the  scientist  is 
desiring  discovery.  If  his  work  be  interrupted 
by  household  matters,  he  desires  ardently  to 
get  back  to  his  work.  Some  women  desire 
"  pretty "  clothes,  others  desire  a  beautiful 
home.  One  desires  rest,  another  gaiety  and 
excitement.  We  shall  find  on  analysis  that 
the  energy  behind  these  desires  can  for  the  most 
part  be  traced  to  the  two  primitive  instincts 
mentioned  in  the  last  chapter — namel}7,  self- 
preservation  and  self-propagation,  or  perhaps 
it  would  be  more  accurate  to  say  to  the  ultimate 
instinct  of  vital  continuity. 

Let  us  take  an  example.  A  man  becomes 
devoted  to  the  game  of  tennis,  and  much  physical 
energy  is  expended  in  playing  the  game,  but 
behind  t'his  much  mental  or  psychic  energy  is 

21  C 


22       DESIRES    AND    PSYCHIC    ENERGY 

also  expended.  The  desire  to  play,  if  there 
were  no  energy  behind  that  desire,  would  avail 
nothing.  There  must  be  sufficient  force  to 
cause  the  man  to  act,  seize  his  racquet  and  balls 
and  overcome  his  physical  inertia  throughout 
a  hot  afternoon.  Let  us  just  examine  this  in 
a  purely  superficial  manner  for  the  moment. 
One  of  the  constantly  recurring  expressions  we 
hear  is,  "I  must  get  some  exercise  !  "  or,  "  I 
need  more  exercise  !  ,;  Why  is  this  ?  Exercise 
is  required  to  keep  us  in  health.  Health  is 
necessary  to  the  prolongation  of  life.  Ulti- 
mately, then,  man}^  people  have  the  instinct 
of  self-preservation,  to  some  extent  at  any  rate, 
behind  their  desire  to  play  tennis.  There  is, 
however,  another  unconscious  motive.  It  is 
well  known  that  sports  are  commonly  encouraged 
at  school,  at  any  rate  to  some  extent,  because 
experience  shows  that  morbid  sexuality  is  less 
in  those  who  expend  their  energy  in  the  excite- 
ment and  emotion  of  sports  than  in  those  who 
are  averse  from  outdoor  games. 

Now  sexual  desire  is  one  of  the  forms  of 
desire  we  are  taught  to  repress  from  childhood 
upwards,  but  though  we  may  often  very  suc- 
cessfully repress  conflicts  connected  with  this 
desire  into  the  unconscious  yet  the  energy  be- 
longing to  this  desire  is  still  present,  and  must 
find  some  outlet  for  its  discharge.     Tennis,  with 


DESIRES    AND    PSYCHIC    ENERGY       23 

its  elements  of  excitement,  mental  and  physical, 
as  well  as  possibly  its  element  of  rhythmic 
motion,  furnishes  to  some  extent  this  outlet. 
It  is  the  same  with  other  forms  of  sport.  Hence 
the  repression  of  sexual  desire  may  lead  to  a 
desire  to  expend  the  energy  in  some  other  excit- 
ing manner.  Thus  our  tennis  player  may  have 
much  that  is  ultimately  concerned  with  both 
self-preservation  and  self-propagation  behind 
his  desire  to  play  tennis. 

Such  a  displacement  of  psychic  energy  from 
an  undesirable  to  a  desirable  form  of  discharge 
is  known  as  sublimation.  Sport  is  not  the 
only  method  of  sublimation,  however  ;  religion, 
art,  music,  mathematics,  science,  etc.,  all  per- 
form a  similar  function,  while  in  the  opposite 
direction  alcoholism,  drug-taking,  hysterics  and 
psychoneuroses  of  various  kinds  may  act  as 
an  outlet  for  such  repressed  energy  of  desire 
on  a  lower  plane,  yet  still  in  such  a  manner 
that  prevents  the  crude  instincts  and  their 
ensuing  mental  conflicts  from  entering  too  often 
or  too  forcibly  into  the  conscious  mind.  The 
matter  is  not  nearly  so  simple  as  one  might 
imagine  from  the  above  paragraphs.  At  present 
I  am  only  attempting  to  give  a  general  idea 
of  it  ;  we  shall  later  find  the  mechanism 
behind  the  changing  forms  of  "  energy  of  desire  " 
to  be  of  a  somewhat  complex  nature. 


24       DESIRES    AND    PSYCHIC    ENERGY 

This  leads  us  to  consider  the  term,  "  energy 
of  desire."  "  Psychic  energy  "  is  another  name 
which  we  can  give  to  it :  some  have  called  it 
"  mental  energy." 

It  will  aid  our  conception  of  this  mental  or 
psychic  energy  if  we  first  consider  for  a  moment 
physical  energy. 

We  know  as  regards  physical  energy  that 
there  are  not  several  kinds  of  energy,  but  merely 
several  manifestations  of  it,  and  that  it  may 
be  changed  from  one  form  of  manifestation  to 
another,  but  that  still  the  sum  total  of  the 
original  energy  remains  without  addition  or 
loss. 

Thus  there  is  a  given  amount  of  energy 
stored  in  a  ton  of  coal  This  energy  can  mani- 
fest itself  as  heat  in  the  furnace  and  boiler. 
By  means  of  an  engine  we  can  change  the 
manifestation  into  that  of  motion,  then  with 
a  dynamo  to  electricity ;  the  electricity  we 
can  again  change  into  light,  or  back  into  heat 
or  motion.  There  is  one  energy,  but  by  suitable 
means  we  can  turn  it  to  different  uses,  and  give 
different  manifestations  of  it.  Owing,  however, 
to  the  imperfection  of  our  boiler,  machinery, 
etc.,  we  never  transform  the  whole  of  our  energy 
into  another  form.  In  transforming  heat  into 
electricity  there  is  always  some  heat  wasted  ; 
it  is  not  destroved,  but  it  remains  as  heat  for 


DESIRES    AND    PSYCHIC    ENERGY       25 

a  time,  and  is  absorbed  by  surrounding  objects. 
A  complete  transference  of  energy  docs  not 
take  place,  and  the  less  efficient  the  machinery 
the   less  efficient   is   the   transference. 

Now  evidence  tends  to  show  a  considerable 
similarity  between  psychic  and  physical  energy. 
In  all  probability  there  is  only  one  ultimate 
psychic  energy,  which,  like  physical  energy, 
can  be  directed  into  different  channels.  Thus 
the  energy  of  erotic  desire  can  be  directed  to  a 
large  extent  into  the  energy  of  desire  for  music, 
religion,  science  or  sport  ;  or  the  energy  of 
the  desire  for  sport  may  be  changed  into  the 
energy  of  desire  for  mental  exercise,  such  as 
chess,  mathematics  or  science.  For  example, 
an  individual  feels  "  restless  "  :  he  then  desires 
to  play  tennis  ;  the  afternoon  is  wet  ;  he  plays 
chess  instead.  His  psychic  energy  has  been 
diverted  from  one  channel  into  another  with 
its  accompanying  excitement  and  satisfaction 
of  desire  ;  with  its  final  feeling  of  fatigue  and 
repletion. 

Psychic  energy,  like  physical  energy,  can 
never  be  entirely  diverted  from  one  channel 
to  another.  There  is  always  some.,  often  a 
large  quantity,  which  is  not  altered  in  charac- 
ter.  The  amount  of  this  depends  largely  on 
the  person  concerned,  just  as  the  amount  of 
physical    energy,    changed    from    one    form    to 


26       DESIRES    AND    PSYCHIC    ENERGY 

another  depends  on  the  efficiency  of  the  engine 
or  machinery. 

This  possibility  of  transference  of  energy  of 
desire  from  one  form  to  another  is  of  the  utmost 
importance  to  the  psycho-analyst.  By  the 
technique  of  psycho-analysis  the  energy  of 
repressed  desires  is  first  freed  from  deleterious, 
and  then  transferred  to  legitimate  objectives. 
The  energy  behind  the  desires  of  the  alcoholic 
or  drug-taker  may,  under  suitable  conditions, 
be  transferred  to  energy  of  higher  types  of 
desire,  with  more  suitable  outlets.  These  pro- 
cesses are  known  as  transference  and  sublimation 
respectively. 

It  may  be  taken  that  every  mind  has  a  given 
amount  of  psychic  energy  which  must  find 
somewhere  its  suitable  outlet  in  satisfying 
desire. 

We  may  here  take  the  opportunity  of  re- 
marking that  the  efficiency  or  lack  of  efficiency 
demonstrated  in  different  individuals  in  their 
attempts  to  transfer  the  energy  of  desire  from 
a  lower  to  a  higher  channel  depends  not  only 
on  heredity  and  constitutional  circumstances 
but  to  an  extraordinary  degree  on  the  in- 
dividual's environment  and  the  actions  of  the 
parents  in  the  first  three  or  four  years  of  his 
life.  The  reason  why  seemingly  excellent 
parents   produce  sometimes  execrable  progeny 


Desires  and  psychic  energy     27 

becomes  clearer  under  psycho-analysis.  The 
over-strict  parent  produces  one  type  of  in- 
efficient children,  the  parent  who  spoils  pro- 
duces other  inefficient  types.  The  nurse,  the 
nursery,  the  casual  visitor,  the  trivial  conversa- 
tions, the  unconsidered  sights  and  experiences, 
all  have  a  terrific  influence  in  the  first  few  years 
of  the  child's  life.  Parents  do  not  realize  that 
conventional  or  arbitrary  methods  of  education, 
whether  in  one  direction  or  another,  are  not 
going  to  effect  the  results  they  expected.  The 
primitive  unconscious  mind  of  the  child  under- 
stands and  absorbs  in  a  manner  that  civilised 
man  docs  not  recognise.  The  bad  father  may 
by  accident  or  neglect  produce  an  excellent  child 
— the  good  father  with  all  his  designs  may 
produce  a  bad  one.  This  is  not  an  attempt  to 
shew  that  as  the  child  grows  up  all  its  actions 
are  dependent  on  the  early  environment  ;  merely 
that  we  can  never  compare  the  good  or  bad  in 
individuals  ;  that  an  apparent  failure,  owing 
to  his  inefficiency  of  powers  of  sublimation, 
may  yet  be  devoting  more  energy  to  ascent 
than  the  successful  saint  whose  early  environ- 
ment made  for  efficient  transference  of  energy 
of  desire.  Some  of  the  commonest  of  errors 
made  by  well-meaning  parents  will  come  to 
light  at  a  later  period.  They  teach  their  children 
to  repress  erotic  and  other  desires  but  they  omit 


28       DESIRES    AND    PSYCHIC    ENERGY 

to  assist  the  development  of  that  sublimation  which 
is  absolutely  essential  at  the  same  time. 

The  word  libido  is  often  used  by  psycho- 
analysts instead  of  the  words  "  energy  of 
desire."  The  very  different  meanings  applied 
to  it,  however,  seem  to  me  to  make  the  word 
libido  an  unsuitable  one  to  use.  The  Freudian 
school  mean  by  libido  the  energy  of  all  forms 
of  sexual  desire,  in  its  broadest  sense  ;  other 
authorities  use  it  to  designate  all  forms  of 
psychic  energy,  and  there  are  yet  others  who 
place  it  somewhere  between  the  two.  Hence 
in  this  book  I  shall  avoid  the  use  of  the  term  ; 
it  is,  however,  necessary  for  persons  who  intend 
to  read  other  works  on  psycho-analysis  to  have 
some  idea  of  what  meaning  different  writers 
attach  to  the  word  libido. 

Having  pointed  out  that  psychic  energy 
appears  to  be  of  one  kind  only,  though  mani- 
festing itself  in  different  ways,  the  question 
arises,  what  is  its  fundamental  and  primitive 
source  ? 

Freud  holds,  as  the  result  of  far  reaching 
studies  that  the  energy  of  sexual  desire  is  at 
the  root  of  practically  all  other  forms,  even  in 
infancy.  His  conclusions  follow  upon  years  of 
careful  research  ;  he  sees  in  the  suckling  of  an 
infant  at  the  mother's  breast  the  earliest  form 
of  sexual  satisfaction  in  the  infant.     The  desire, 


DESIRES    AND    PSYCHIC    ENERGY       2«j 

the  evident  pleasure,  followed  by  complete 
satiety,  flushing  and  sleep  he  compares  with 
the  fulfilment  of  normal  sexual  intercourse  of 
later  life.  He  shows  that  the  breast  and  mouth, 
as  well  as  the  arms,  eyes,  nose  and  various  parts 
of  the  skin  and  the  reproductive  organs  them- 
selves are  all  erotic  zones  ;  that  is,  that  they 
have  some  kind  of  sexual  significance  in  early 
life  which  often  persists  in  various  people  in  a 
modified  form  after  puberty.  But  with  all  the 
evidence  which  he  adduces  I  do  not  consider 
that  he  has  proved  the  nutritional  desire  of 
infancy  to  be  an  early  and  undifferentiated  part 
of  sexual  desire. 

We  mentioned  previously  two  great  primi- 
tive instincts — the  desire  for  self-preservation 
and  the  desire  for  self- propagation  or  contin- 
uance of  the  species  (erotic  desire).  The  two 
are  no  doubt  very  intimately  connected  and 
probably  both  are  derived  from  a  still  more 
primitive  and  undifferentiated  "  life  "  desire.* 
But  there  is  certainly  evidence  to  show  that 
the  nutritional  instinct  is  nearer  that  of  self- 
preservation  than  of  sexual  desire,  for  all  its 
superficial  resemblances. 

Let  us  take  as  an  example  one  of  the  most 
primitive    life    histories    possible — that    of    the 

*This  "life  rlesirc "  I  hive  called  "  the  instinct  of  vital  con- 
tinuity" in  other  pins  of  this  work,  as  represent  inn  the  n'limate 
instinct  in  the  most  primitive  an. I   undifferentiated   forms  of  life. 


30       DESIRES    AND    PSYCHIC    ENERGY 

amoeba.  The  young  amoeba  spends  its  energy 
solely  in  growth  and  in  acquiring  food.  As  an 
individual  it  only  has  one  sexual  act  of  any 
kind  in  its  life  history,  and  that  is  at  the  end 
of  its  individual  life,  when  its  nucleus  divides 
into  two  parts,  and  the  amoeba  itself  then 
follows  suit,  constituting  two  new  young  amoebae. 
It  is  possible  to  argue  that  it  begins  its  life 
with  a  sexual  act  of  the  parent  amoeba,  and 
that  all  its  life  is  devoted  to  preparing  for  a 
sexual  act  of  its  own,  whereby  the  species  shall 
be  continued.  But  one  may  equally  well  argue 
that  its  chief  energy  is  devoted  to  acquiring 
nourishment,  and  only  when  it  finds  its  powers 
of  assimilation  failing  does  it  then  rest  and 
perform  its  sexual  act  as  a  means  of  rejuven- 
escence, that  it  may  once  more  get  back  to  its 
pleasure  of  assimilating  food. 

On  the  face  of  it,  the  longest  part  of  its  life 
is  devoted  to  self-preservation  rather  than  to 
self -propagation,  but  the  two  are  equally  neces- 
sary to  the  continuance  of  the  species.  It 
surely  would  be  better  to  describe  the  energy 
of  both  as  alternating  manifestations  of  an 
instinct  of  vital  continuity,  rather  than  to 
ascribe  the  nutritional  element  as  a  form  of 
the  sexual  element.  Indeed,  it  would  appear 
to  be  more  logical  to  speak  of  the  sexual  element 
in  any  individual  as  being  one  of  the  manifesta- 


DESIRES    AND    PSYCHIC    KNERG\        31 

tions  of  the  instinct  of  self-preservation,  and 
of  assuming  even  that  it  may  develop  later 
out  of  nutritional  processes,  rather  than  stating 
that  the  infantile  nutritional  process  is  a  mani- 
festation of  infantile  sexual   desire. 

I  am  not  disputing  Freud's  fact  that  sexual 
desires  begin  to  manifest  themselves  in  infancy, 
but  that  all  other  manifestations  of  desire  should 
be  reduced  to  a  sexual  basis.  Many  of  his 
disciples  reduce  all  form  of  fear  to  a  sexual 
basis — i.e.,  the  fear  of  death  is  an  unconscious 
fear  that  one  will  no  longer  be  able  to  continue 
to  propagate  the  species  by  sexuality.  It  seems 
more  reasonable  to  suppose  that  such  fear  is 
a  result  of  the  unconscious  instinct  of  vital 
continuity,  and  that  in  itself  it  is  a  reaction 
against  the  destruction  of  life  rather  than  of  the 
nerve  power  to  reproduce  the  species.  The 
whole  is  greater  than  the  part. 

SUMMARY 

1.  Life  activity   is  chiefly  composed  of  various 

desires  and  the  effort  to  gratify  desires. 

2.  Most  desires  can  be  traced  ultimately  to  the 

primitive  desire  to  continue  and  preserve 
life   (the   instinct  of  vital  continuity). 

3.  To  attain  any  desire  ice  must  use  a  form  of 

energy  which   ice  term   psychic  or   mental 
energy. 


32        DESIRES   AND   PSYCHIC   ENERGY 

4.  Psychic    energy,    like   physical    energy,    ap- 

pears to  be  of  one  kind  only,  though  it 
may,  like  physical  energy  have  many 
forms  of  manifestation. 

5.  Like  physical   energy,   one  form  of  psychic 

energy  can  be  transformed  into  another 
form,  but  never  completely — always  some 
remains  in  the  original  form.  The  amount 
unchanged  depends  on  the  efficiency  of  the 
particular  personal  machinery. 

6.  The    energy    of  sexual   desire   is    constantly 

repressed,  but  it  must  and  will  find  an  out- 
let somewhere,  if  in  another  form. 


CHAPTER    III 

The    Evolution    of    Erotic    Desire 

Note. — /  have  not  endeavoured  to  prove  the 
conclusions  drawn  in  this  chapter.  The  proof 
involves  in  itself  enough  work  to  fill  several 
volumes,  and  consists  largely  of  the  results  of 
psycho-analytic  research.  I  have  merely  tried 
to  give  a  clear  conception  of  the  facts  by  com- 
parative means,  by  examples  taken  in  different 
forms  of  primitive  life,  many  of  which  are 
known  to  everyone  to  persist  in  the  adult  life 
of  abnormal  individuals.  I  have  tried  to  show 
the  steps  of  psychic  evolution  by  simple  refer- 
ences to  comparative  psychology  in  much  the 
same  way  that  one  demonstrates  to  a  student 
human  anatomical  values  by  means  of  com- 
parative anatomy.  Those  readers  who  wisli 
to  see  more  of  the  evidence  proving  the  facts 
given  in  tin's  chapter  should  read  Freud's 
"  Three  Contributions  to  the  Theory  of  Sex  "  ; 
also  his  "  Selected  Papers  on  Hysteria  and 
other  PsycJioneuroses,"  and  his  '  Interpreta- 
tion of  Dreams  "  ;    Pfister's  "  Psycho-analytic 

33 


34   THE    EVOLUTION    OF    EROTIC    DESIRE 

Method  "  ;  Imry's  different  ivorks  and  Brill's 
work,  all  contribute  their  evidence  to  the  whole. 
In  a  short  text  book  it  is  impossible  of  course 
to  give  full  proof  of  all  the  facts  arrived  at  by 
previous  workers. 

Many  will  wonder  why  we  should  discuss 
sexuality  at  such  length,  having  expressed  the 
opinion  that  Freud  has  dogmatised  too  freely 
in  reducing  every  desire  to  this  ultimate  basis. 
We  shall  attempt  in  a  few  words  to  show  the 
reason  of  this,  before  proceeding  with  our  con- 
sideration of  sexual  evolution. 

We  have  seen  that  our  Instinct  for  Vital 
Continuity  expresses  itself  in  the  two  subsidiary 
instincts  of  self-preservation  and  self-pro- 
pagation. 

Now  we  shall  find  that  the  manifestations 
of  the  energy  behind  these  instincts  overlap 
considerably  ;  that  what  is  in  the  first  place 
a  means  of  self-preservation  may  afterwards 
become  also  an  important  factor  in  self-pro- 
pagation ;  that  at  different  times  the  same 
expression  of  energy  may  subserve  both  purposes. 

But  whereas  the  meaning  of  energy  dis- 
played may  be  clear  when  considered  in 
conjunction  with  self-preservation,  it  is  far 
from  clear  when  the  statement  is  first  made 
that  it  is  a  constituent  of  sexuality. 


THE    EVOLUTION    OF    EROTIC    DESIRE   35 

This,  then,  is  one  reason  why  the  discussion 
of  sexual  evolution  is  of  importance.  A  second, 
and  very  much  more  important  reason  is  that 
desires  and  conflicts  in  connection  with  self- 
preservation  are  not  repressed,  and,  the  progress 
of  civilization  has  made  self-preservation  a  much 
less  arduous  task  than  in  the  days  of  our  pre- 
human forefathers,  and  much  of  the  energy 
once  devoted  to  self-preservation  is  now  freed 
and  flows  through  erotic  channels  instead. 
This  is  especially  the  case  in  females  and  in 
those  who  do  not  have  to  grapple  with  the 
problem  of  "  earning  a  living."  On  the  other 
hand  we  are  taught  from  childhood  upwards  to 
repress  sexual  desire  and  all  thought  connected 
with  it  ;  and  since,  much  of  our  energy  that  was 
previously  used  in  self-preservation  has  now 
been  freed  from  that  channel  and  Hows  into  the 
channel  of  self-propagation,  this  repression 
is  rendered  more  difficult.  Thus  civilised  con- 
ditions have  constantly  magnified  the  dif- 
ferentiation of  sex  artificially  and  have  increased 
erotic  energy  by  utilizing  some  of  the  energy 
of  self-preservation,  and  having  made  this 
increase  they  then  proceed  to  repress  this  energy 
—  a  course  which  is  taken  by  no  other  animal 
under  the  sun.  The  result  is  that  unless  suit- 
able sublimation  takes  place  we  have  all  kinds 
of   psychoneuroses  on   the  one   hand,   and   per- 


36   THE    EVOLUTION    OF    EROTIC    DESIRE 

versions  and  "  bad  habits "  of  various  kinds 
on  the  other  hand.  Hence  we  find  it  absolutely 
essential  to  any  analysis  of  the  unconscious  to 
have  a  thorough  understanding  of  the  com- 
ponents of  sexuality  and  the  side  channels  into 
which  their  energy  may  turn. 

The  idea  is  commonly  prevalent  that  sexual 
instincts  consist  of  a  strong  impulse  towards 
the  other  sex,  which  arises  in  the  individual 
as  puberty  approaches.  Nothing  is  further 
from  the  truth.  The  attraction  to  sexual  con- 
nection between  opposite  sexes  is  merely  a  part 
of  and  a  climax  to  many  varied  impulses  arising 
at  different  periods  from  infancy  onwards, 
and  having  aims  quite  apart  from  sexual  con- 
nection with  one  of  the  opposite  sex. 

As  our  bodies  repeat  the  stages  of  our  evolution 
so  also  do  our  minds  ;  and  as  our  bodies  still 
retain  much  that  belongs  to  our  earliest  progenitors 
so  also  do  our  minds. 

We  spoke  previously  of  the  "  sexuality " 
of  the  primitive  amoeba.  It  has  no  sex.  It 
has  no  differentiated  organs.  The  potentiality 
of  reproduction  ad  infinitum  exists  within  itself. 
It  merely  divides  first  its  nucleus  and  then  its 
whole  self,  becoming  thus  two  new  young 
individuals.  The  earliest  type  is  thus  mono- 
sexual  and  autosexual.  Even  as  the  type  grows 
more  complex  under  the  process  of  evolution 


THE    EVOLUTION    OF    EROTIC    DESIRE    37 

we  find  this  autosexuality  persisting  along  with 
bisexuality.  A  little  higher  in  the  evolutionary 
scale  we  find  the  paramoecium.  At  one  time 
in  its  life  it  will  divide  first  its  nucleus  and  then 
itself  also  (an  autosexual  act)  as  in  the  case  of 
the  amceba.  At  another  time  it  will  perform 
an  elementary  sexual  act  by  coming  ventrally 
together  with  another  paramoecium,  and  having 
split  its  nucleus  into  two  parts,  exchange  one 
half  of  its  nucleus  for  half  the  nucleus  of  the 
other  paramoecium,  via  the  mouth,  and  this 
is  followed  after  various  stages  of  nuclear  change 
by  each  paramoecium  splitting  into  two.  There 
is  no  apparent  difference  between  the  two 
animals  ;  they  have  no  male  and  female  organs, 
but  the  nuclei  evidently  contain  in  each  case  a 
"  male  "  and  "  female  "  portion— a  certain  un- 
known something  which  is  necessary  to 
rejuvenescence.  We  have  here  the  progenitors 
of  bisexuality  ;  but  autosexuality  is  still  an 
essential   factor  in   propagation. 

Higher  in  the  scale  we  find  the  hydra — a 
multicellular  animal.  Here  again  we  find  auto- 
sexuality. The  hydra  without  the  aid  of  another 
one  can  "  bud  off  "  a  new  living  hydra  ;  but 
we  also  find  bisexuality,  in  that  it  forms  in 
itself  male  and  female  cells  which  unite  with 
one  another  to  form  a  new  hydra  in  true  bi- 
sexual   manner.      It    is    both    autosexual    and 


38   THE    EVOLUTION    OF    EROTIC    DESIRE 

bisexual  and  shows  early  traces  of  hermaphro- 
ditism. 

Yet  further,  as  evolution  proceeds,  we  find 
the  earthworm.  Each  worm  contains  the  organs 
of  both  sexes — ovary  and  testes  fully  developed, 
and  each  worm  needs  fertilisation  from  another 
individual.  They  are  true  hermaphrodites,  and 
bisexuality  is  fully  established.  Inasmuch  as 
the  two  worms  are  of  the  same  sex — both  being 
male  as  well  as  female — we  may  say  that  they  are 
homosexual* ;  they  are  attracted  by  worms  of 
similar  constitution.  The  same  applies  also  to 
the  paramoecium. 

As  we  ascend  higher  still  in  the  scale  we  find 
that  the  male  and  female  organs  still  persist 
in  all  animals,  but  that  gradually  one  set  of 
organs  only  is  fully  developed,  the  other  re- 
maining more  or  less  rudimentary.  Therefore, 
individual  beings  in  their  development  have 
become  differentiated  into  male  and  female 
very  gradually.  But  right  up  to  and  including 
human  beings  we  still  find  that  every  individual 
has  some  of  the  organs  of  both  sexes  present  in 
varying  degrees  of  development  with  even 
occasional  true  hermaphroditism.  Thus  in  the 
male  we  have  rudimentary  breasts  and  nipples" 
and  a  rudimentary  uterus   (uterus  masculinis), 

'Homosexual — Sexual  attraction  between  members    of   the    same 
sex,  whether  male  or  female 


THE    EVOLUTION    OF    EROTIC    DESIRE    39 

and  in  the  female  we  have  the  homologue  of 
the  penis  in  the  clitoris  and  of  the  scrotum  in 
the  labia  majora,  and  so  on.  Every  individual 
is  bisexual  physically. 

The  main  trend  of  psychic  sexual  develop- 
ment runs  on  similar  lines,  and  we  find  this 
repeated  in  the  life  of  all  animals,  even  those  of 
the  highest  development. 

Autosexuality  is  exhibited  in  very  earl}r  child- 
hood. Many  parents  are  much  distressed  to 
find  their  infants  have  a  tendency  towards 
masturbation,  or  show  other  forms  of  so-called 
sexual  precocity  and  perversions.  Moreover, 
infants  show  many  other  manifestations  of 
sexuality,  which  fortunately  for  the  peace  of 
mind  of  their  parents  are  not  commonly  recog- 
nised as  possessing  sexual  significance.  How- 
ever, this  autosexuality  is  not  abnormal.  It  is  a 
stage  in  the  infantile  development  of  sex,  and 
will  normally  be  replaced  by  other  manifestations 
at  a  later  date  if  wrong  methods  of  repression 
without  sublimation  do  not  take  place.  But  it 
will  not  all  disappear  from  the  unconscious 
mind  ;  some  autosexuality  remains  in  the 
adult,  but  its  form  is  changed. 

Human  beings  air  not  alone  in  this  retention 
of  the  autosexual  instinct.*  Dogs  arc  well 
known  to  attempt  onanism,  stags  perform  the 

♦Sec    •  I'hc  Nature  <■:    M.n  "    -Ml\  h>  i'.  :f. 


40   THE    EVOLUTION    OF    EROTIC    DESIRE 

act  against  trees,  cattle,  horses  and  monkeys 
do  the  same  ;  the  female  monkey,  like  the 
female  human  infant,  obtains  sexual  gratification 
by  rubbing  its  thighs  together,  as  well  as  by 
handling  itself. 

At  a  later  stage  of  life  we  find  a  further 
development.  Schoolboys  and  schoolgirls  have 
not  much  attraction  for  the  opposite  sex — 
indeed,  they  are  often  scornful  of  them,  and 
look  upon  the  other  sex  with  a  certain  disdain. 
They,  however,  form  ver}r  strong  friendships 
with  members  of  their  own  sex,  and  it  is  common 
knowledge  that  under  adverse  conditions  of 
sublimation  they  touch,  inspect  and  gratif}7 
one  another's  sexual  desires  by  masturbation, 
etc.  In  other  words,  before  the  full  develop- 
ment of  the  sexual  organs  they  have  strong 
homosexual  tendencies  which  may  or  may  not 
be  conscious,  and  may  or  may  not  be  repressed 
and  sublimated  according  to  circumstances. 
Again  we  see  a  homosexual  tendency  in  dogs, 
and  other  animals.  (By  homosexual  tendencies 
is  meant  sexual  attraction  towards  members 
of  the  same  sex  whether  occurring  in  males  or 
females.  Heterosexual  tendencies  are  those 
which  are  directed  to  members  of  the  opposite 
sex).  Here  also  there  is  no  abrupt  change 
from  homo-  to  heterosexuality.  Even  after 
puberty  a  good  deal  of  the  homosexual  remains 


THE    EVOLUTION    OF    EROTIC    DESIRE  41 

as  a  component  of  our  complete  sexual  instinct, 
but  under  normal  circumstances  it  is  either 
repressed  or  sublimated. 

Finally  then,  at  puberty  we  reach  the  normal 
attraction  for  members  of  the  opposite  sex 
(hcterosexuality).  But  the  other  forms  of 
sexuality  still  remain,  although  unconscious, 
and  their  energy  is  turned  to  other  purposes, 
or  partially  so. 

We  might  thus  put  down  the  sexuality  of  an 
infant  as : 

Autosexuality      100% 
of  a  child  of  twelve  years  of  age  : 

Autosexuality       40% 

Homosexuality     50% 

Hcterosexuality  10% 
of  a  normal  individual  at  puberty  : 

Autosexuality      20% 

Homosexuality    30% 

Hcterosexuality  50% 
Any  or  all  of  these  components  may  be  : 

(1)  Repressed    and   then   sublimated. 

(2)  Repressed  without  adequate  sublimation, 

(causing  neuroses,  bad   habits,   etc). 

(j)     Not  repressed,  but  expressed. 

(4)     Displaced. 

These  three  forms  of  sexuality  may  be  termed 
the  primary  sexual  aims,  i.e.,  the  individual 
aims  at   discharging   his  erotic  energy  through 


42    THE    EVOLUTION    OF    EROTIC    DESIRE 

one  of  these  channels.  We  are  for  the  moment 
ignoring  the  fact  that  sublimation  and  displace- 
ment into  other  channels  may  take  place. 

Now  if  at  any  period  of  the  child's  life  the 
normal  psychic  sexual  development  is  inter- 
fered with  or  arrested  the  more  primitive  flow 
of  energy  along  autosexual  or  homosexual  lines 
may  persist  in  the  adult.  Or  should  resistances 
which  occur  in  adult  life  dam  back  the  normal 
flow  of  energy  through  the  heterosexual  channel 
it  may  find  its  outlet  through  either  of  the  more 
primitive  channels.  The  two  factors  which 
appear  to  decide  relative  proportion  of  these 
forms  of  sexuality  in  the  individual  are  : 

(i)     Heredity  :    constitutional  tendency. 
(2)     Early  environment. 

Of  these,  heredity  plays  the  smaller  part. 
Early  environment  is  nearly  everything. 

Thus  far  we  have  traced  the  development 
of  the  sexual  aim  ;  but  we  have  by  no  means 
solved  here  the  question  of  how  the  sexual 
impulse  (or  desire)  as  we  know  it  is  constituted  ; 
and  again  we  must  try  to  follow  up  some  of  the 
motives  of  the  more  primitive  types  of  life. 

In  considering  the  impulses  which  go  to 
make  sexuality  we  shall  see  how  some  of  these 
also  serve  the  instinct  of  self-preservation  and 
only  secondarily  acquire  a  sexual  import. 


THE    EVOLUTION    OF    EROTIC    DESIRE   43 

One  of  the  most  important  of  the  factors  in 
the  self-preservation  of  the  primitive  animal  is 
pain.     Pain   is  a  warning  to  the  animal   that 
all  is  not  well  with  it.     Pain  comes  from  wounds, 
from  aggression  of  other  animals  ;   it  is  an  early 
warning  of  the  final/ity  of  individual  life.     Hence       /J 
the   avoidance  of   pain   and   of  such   situations 
as  lead  to  pain  is  in  itself  an  act  of  self-preserva- 
tion.    Hut  in  the  struggle  for  life  which  brings 
about  the  survival  of  the  fittest  mere  avoidance 
of  pain  is  not  enough.     Perhaps  there  is  food 
for    but    one    mouth  ;     there    are    two    hungry 
mouths  waiting.     It  is  no  longer  a  question  of 
avoiding  pain,  but  of  aggression  and  of  giving 
pain.     The    stronger    finds    that    the    fear    of 
imminent    death    which    follows    his   aggression 
and  consequent  pain  to  the  weaker  causes  fear, 
and  that  the  weaker  prefers  to  risk  a  distant 
death  by  starvation  rather  than  the  imminent 
death    foreboded    by    the    aggression.     Hence 
aggression    becomes   a   vital   necessity   in   early 
life — to  kill,  or,  failing  that,  to  cause  pain  and 
its    accompanying    fear    becomes    an    integral 
factor  of  lite.     To  subdue  others  is  a  nccer>sity 
which  becomes  an  instinct. 

Now  as  soon  as  we  deal  with  bisexual  animals 
we  are  met  with  two  facts.  Firstly,  that  the 
sexual  moment  or  period  of  impulse  of  one 
animal  does  not  necessarily  correspond  with  that 


44   THE    EVOLUTION    OF    EROTIC    DESIRE 

of  the  other,  and  since  the  first  animal  has 
already  discovered  that  desires  are  attained  03^ 
aggression  the  first  animal  becomes  aggressive, 
and  subdues  the  second  animal  forcibfy,  and 
probably  painfully,  while  the  sexual  act  is  per- 
formed. Moreover,  the  second  animal,  at  first 
associating  such  aggression  and  pain  with  fear 
of  extermination  will  now  associate  it  with  a 
different    impulse — that    of    sexuality. 

Secondly,  after  the  sexual  act  has  been  com- 
menced by  the  aggressor  without  apparent 
danger  to  the  life  of  the  aggressed,  there  is  a 
relief  on  the  part  of  the  latter.  Moreover, 
in  the  higher  animals  the  pleasure  of  the  sexual 
act  is  induced  in  the  aggressed,  even  though 
conscious  desire  was  not  present  before.  So 
that  both  the  active  and  passive  partners  as- 
sociate aggression  and  cruelty  with  the  sexual 
act  ;  the  one  as  a  giver,  the  other  as  a  recipient 
of  pain.  But  since  both  animals  have  bisexual 
characteristics,  as  has  already  been  shown, 
both  may  connect  psychically  the  giving  and 
receiving  of  pain  with  sexuality. 

It  is  possible  that  this  explanation  is  not 
correct  in  detail,  and  that  the  aggression  and 
pleasure  of  cruelty  in  the  primitive  types  is  in 
itself  the  prime  sexual  pleasure  ;  but  in  either 
case,  the  fact  remains  that  the  pleasure  of  giving 
and  of  receiving  pain  of  some  kind  is  one  of  the 


THE    EVOLUTION    OF    EROTIC    DESIRE   45 

primitive  sexual  impulses,  which  Freud  has 
called  "  partial  impulses,"  and  which  go  towards 
making  the  complete  adult  sexual  impulse. 

This  is  illustrated  in  many  ways.  In  its 
least  repressed  form  we  have  open  sadism 
(cruelty  for  its  own  sake)  and  masochism  (the 
desire  to  feel  pain).  A  patient  of  mine  who  was 
fairly  normal  in  most  respects  related  how  as  a 
boy  he  used  to  flog  himself  when  he  mastur- 
bated, in  order  to  increase  the  pleasure.  In 
many  of  the  more  passionate  types  of  the 
southern  races  it  is  not  uncommon  to  find  that 
both  men  and  women  bite  one  another  or 
otherwise  indict  injury  during  the  act  of  coitus, 
and  they  ascribe  added  pleasure  to  the  act 
thereby.  Cruelty  on  the  part  of  boys  at  school 
(bullying)  is  nearly  always  a  sexual  manifes- 
tation which,  like  homosexuality,  should  be  only 
a  passing  phase,  which  is  later  repressed  into  the 
unconscious.  The  monks  who  denied  them- 
selves sexual  intercourse,  but  found  pleasure 
in  Hogging  themselves  or  others,  form  an  example 
of  the  way  that  sexual  energy,  when  denied  its 
normal  course  finds  a  more  primitive  outlet. 
A  schoolmaster  with  repressed  and  unconscious 
homosexuality  will  often  be  noted  for  his  Hogging 
proclivities,  and  so  forth.  Children,  more  especi- 
ally boys,  are  observed  to  have  an  instinct  of 
cruelty  ;     for  example  they   pull   the  wings  of! 


46   THE    EVOLUTION    OF    EROTIC    DESIRE 

flies.     The  sport  of  the  chase  or  of  fishing  serves 
to  gratify  the  instinct  in  adults. 

In  connection  with  this  subject  of  pain  we  now 
come  to  an  important  law.  EVERY  FORM 
OF  PSYCHIC  ENERGY  CAN  MANIFEST 
ITSELF  IN  TWO  WAYS,  OF  WHICH  ONE 
IS  DIAMETRICALLY  OPPOSED  TO  THE 
OTHER. 

Thus  cruelty  for  cruelty's  sake,  though  a 
normal  sexual  impulse  is  recognised  by  the 
community  as  detrimental  under  present  con- 
ditions to  the  general  welfare.  Hence  from  our 
earliest  infancy  we  are  taught  to  view  it  with 
horror  and  to  repress  tendencies  to  cruelty. 
The  opposite  of  cruelty  is  pity  ;  and  pity  is  a 
form  of  the  sublimation*  of  cruelty.  Analysis 
shows  that  the  more  an  individual  displays  pity 
the  more  his  unconscious  mind  contains  of 
repressed  cruelty. 

As  cruelty  may  be  either  towards  another 
or  towards  oneself  (in  autosexual  types),  so 
pity,  its  sublimation,  may  be  either  towards 
others,  or  in  autosexual  types  towards  oneself 
(self  pit}').  The  person  who  is  always  desiring 
pity  or  sympathy  is  always  one  in  whom  en- 
vironment and  force  of  circumstance  have 
prevented  a  flow  of  sexual  energy  into  hetero- 

*Pity  and  other  "opposite  manifestations"  are  not  true  sub- 
limations. The  mason  of  this  will  be  found  in  a  later  chapter. 
They  are  better  termed    "  negative  to"    their  opposite. 


THE    EVOLUTION    OF    EROTIC    DESIRE   47 

sexual  (or  homosexual)  channels,  and  the  energy 
then  endeavours  to  escape  through  autosexual 
channels.  Thus  there  is  no  virtue  in  pity  : 
it  is  not  a  question  of  the  will,  but  purely  of 
the  emotions  and  is  nothing  else  than  one  of 
the  components  of  erotic  desire. 

Very  much  more  might  be  said  on  this  subject 
of  cruelty  and  pity,  but  it  is  my  object  here  to 
confine  myself  to  just  sufficient  to  understand 
the  general  bearing  on  the  subject.  Much 
more  research  will  be  required  before  the  whole 
matter  in  some  of  its  complicated  aspects  is 
quite  clear. 

We  now  have  to  pass  on  to  consider  shortly 
other  impulses  which  go  to  form  the  complex 
desire  of  sexuality.  Some  of  the  chief  ones  arc 
as  follows  : 

(1).  The  desire  to  touch — contact — is  one  of 
the  most  important  of  our  erotic  impulses. 
Not  only  is  contact  of  the  genital  organs  one 
of  the  main  erotic  desires  but  also  contact  of 
various  parts  of  the  body.  It  is  obvious 
in  the  ease  of  many  of  our  progenitors  that  this 
played  a  very  important  part  in  leading  up  to 
the  final  sexual  act.  Thus  if  we  consider  the 
earliest  forms  of  life  that  have  no  intellectual 
or  reasoning  power,  and  also  have  no  actual 
reproductive  organs,  it  is  obvious  that  they 
cannot  reason  and  say,  "  I  must  iici  near  and 


48   THE    EVOLUTION    OF    EROTIC    DESIRE 

touch  the  other  individual  in  order  to  satisfy 

my  sexuality  !  "    The  impulse  to  get  near  and 

touch  the  other  individual  must  in  itself  be  a 

predominant  impulse.     Contact  of  body  itself 

must  constitute  the  main  impulse  of  a  sexual 

nature  in  many  instances.     Thus  in  the  para- 

moecium  ;   two  of  these  animals  come  ventrally 

together  and  afterwards  exchange  nuclei  through 

their   mouths.     One   can   hardly   imagine   that 

this   primitive   unicellular   animal   first    desires 

to  exchange  a  nucleus  and  then  reasons  that  it 

must  get  close  to  and  lie  alongside  the  other 

one  in  order  to  do  so.     Its  obvious  impulse  is 

first  to  come  into  contact  with  the  whole  of  the 

under  surface  of  another  individual,   and  the 

sexual  act  is  merety  consummated  by  the  actual 

discharge  of  the  nuclei.     Chemio-taxis  may  be 

the  original  motive  power  behind  their  drawing 

together,  but  whatever  it  be  it  is  obvious  that 

this  is  the  first  and  essential  part  of  the  sexual 

operation. 

As  we  follow  the  scale  of  evolution  we  see  a 
similar  condition  of  affairs,  though  in  a  modified 
degree.  The  earthworm  is  first  attracted  to 
lie  alongside  its  mate,  which  it  docs  for  a  con- 
siderable period  before  a  "  sexual  act  "  take 
place.  Again,  many  animals  that  have  pro- 
longed contact  with  one  another's  bodies  never 
have   actual  contact   of  the   reproductive   organs  ; 


THE    EVOLUTION    OF    EROTIC    DESIRE    49 

this  applies  especially  to  those  in  which  the 
genital  organs  are  not  of  an  external  nature, 
but  in  both  sexes  open  merely  into  a  vestibule 
(the  cloaca)  in  common  with  the  excretory 
organs.  Thus  the  male  frog  clasps  the  female 
frog's  body  for  hours  on  end  ;  but  no  con- 
nection of  male  with  reproductive  female  organs 
follows. 

One  can  see  the  same  in  human  beings. 
Contact  of  hands,  lips  (kissing),  fondling  of 
breasts,  hair,  face  or  skin  nearly  always  precedes 
and  leads  up  to  the  final  sexual  act.  Indeed, 
without  some  surh  preliminary  work  many 
people  find  it  difficult  to  have  a  sexual  act  at 
all — the  repression  of  early  environment  being 
too  great.  Tims  bodily  contact  in  varying 
degrees  is  one  of  the  pleasures  and  essential 
sexual  components  of  the  act  of  propagation. 

We  must  now  consider  some  of  the  details 
of  this  contact  of  body,  as  they  play  an  im- 
portant part  in  the  sexual  development  of  the 
human  being.  One  knows  that  engaged  persons 
delight  to  hold  hands,  to  kiss  ardently,  t<>  take 
oik1  another's  arms  in  walking,  to  stroke  the 
hair,  etc.  ;  all  these  are  sexual  aets,  and  tend 
towards  making  the  sexual  consummation, 
although  repression  prevents  the  latter  taking 
place  or  even  entering  into  the  conscious  mind 
in  manv  instances.     Sometimes  we  find  women 


50   THE    EVOLUTION    OF    EROTIC    DESIRE 

who  delight  in  taking  another  woman's  hands 
or  in  caressing  her  or  in  kissing  her.  In  this 
instance  we  may  always  know  that  there  is  a 
good  deal  of  homosexuality  present  in  the  un- 
conscious :  again,  it  is  a  sexual  act.  Repressed 
homosexuality  and  autosexuality  is  much  greater 
in  women  than  in  men  on  the  whole,  as  they  are 
brought  up  with  much  more  repression  and 
remain  partial^  fixed  in  an  infantile  condition 
of  sexuality,  which  will  be  discussed  in  the  next 
chapter. 

Erogenous  Zones.  Having  shown  that  the 
sense  of  touch  of  the  body  in  general  has  a  very 
large  sexual  significance,  Freud  has  designated 
certain  parts  of  the  body  which  have  a  special 
sexual  significance  erogenous  zones.  It  is  true 
that  the  activities  of  these  erogenous  zones  are 
not  confined  to  the  sense  of  touch  alone,  but 
that  seeing,  smelling,  hearing,  etc.,  all  have 
their  part  in  the  sexual  activity  of  these  zones. 
Nevertheless,  the  present  place  seems  suitable 
for  discussing  them  briefly. 

The  chief  erogenous  zones  are  as  follows  : 
the  anus,  the  neck  of  the  bladder,  the  mouth, 
breasts,  eyes,  hands,  hair,  feet,  and  the  inner 
parts  of  the  thighs. 

The  Anus. — Developmentally  the  anus  and 
genital  organs  are  lined  with  the  same  con- 
tinuous mucous  membrane.     In  the  frog,  bird 


THE    EVOLUTION    OF    EROTIC    DESIRE    51 

and  other  primitive  t3Tpes  they  open  into  a 
common  vestibule — the  cloaca.  They  are  very 
closely  connected  not  only  developmentally 
but  functionally.  Both  the  penis  and  anus 
are  excretory,  and  the  nerve  supply  of  the 
sphincter  and  other  muscles  of  both  is  of  like 
origin.  Thus  we  can  sec  that  in  the  primitive 
mind  there  is  likely  to  be  a  very  close  connection 
between  the  anus  and  genital  organs,  and  this 
is  actually  the  case.  In  children  this  connection 
is  strongly  developed.  They  are  taught  to 
repress  references  connected  with  both  organs, 
and  they  look  upon  them  as  similar  in  many 
ways.  Moreover,  following  the  developmental 
innervation  of  both  there  is  a  similar  pleasure 
to  be  obtained  with  both,  and  just  as  one  gets 
referred  fain  in  the  area  of  certain  nerve  supplies 
so  one  gets  referred  pleasure.  Children  often 
gain  a  considerable  amount  of  pleasure  from 
constipation,  the  hard  fa?ces  extending  the  anal 
sphincter  in  passing  causing  this,  and  the 
pleasure  is  sometimes  referred  to  the  genital 
organs.  I  have  a  patient  at  the  time  of  writing 
who  was  always  constipated  as  n  child,  and 
whose  mother  was  in  the  habit  of  passing  a 
soaped  linger  into  the  child's  rectum  in  order 
that  she  might  be  induced  to  defalcate.  The 
patient  gained  very  considerable  pleasure  from 
this  act  of  her  mother,  and  often  hail  a  desire 


52    THE    EVOLUTION    OF    EROTIC    DESIRE 

to    kiss    her    mother    during   the    process.     In 
hysterical    patients    we    often    find    an    actual 
sexual  sensation  developed  in  connection  with 
the  mucous  membrane  of  the  anus.     In  children 
(and  adults)   enhanced  pleasure  is  experienced 
by  pressure  on  the  anus  during  masturbation, 
and  the  same  is  true  of  many  married  persons 
during  normal  coitus.     Some  persons  without 
any  apparent  cause  have  a  habit  of  scratching 
or    rubbing    the    neighbourhood    of    the    anus. 
Psychoanalysis  has  shown  that  this  anal  sexual- 
ity exists   in   a  repressed   form  in   everybody. 
Its   degree,   of  course,   varies   enormously  ;    in 
some   persons   it   is   completely   repressed   and 
unconscious  :      in     other     persons     (adults)     it 
assumes   the   form   of   a   perversion,    and   they 
delight   to   have   actual  sexual  connection   per 
anum.     Various  intermediate  forms  exist  :    the 
patient  I  referred  to  above  delights  in  becoming 
constipated   and   in   removing   her   faeces   with 
her  own  finger,  now  that  she  has  grown  up  and 
her  mother's  ministrations  are  no  longer  possible. 
The  main   point  is  that   anal  eroticism  is  a 
normal  sexual  impulse  in  infancy,  but  that  in 
the  normal  individual  it  becomes  repressed  and 
sublimated.     The    anus    in    a    perverted    male 
often    represents   by    association    and    develop- 
ment the  vagina  :    it  is  a  further  example  of 
his  psychic  bisexuality. 


THE    EVOLUTION    OF    EROTIC    DESIRE    53 

The  Mouth. — The  mouth  has  in  some  senses 
even  more  sexual  import  than  the  anus.  We 
have  seen  that  its  use  in  the  most  primitive  of 
types,  i.e.,  in  the  paramoccium,  is  not  only 
nutritional,  but  that  the  actual  sexual  act  takes 
place  by  an  exchange  of  nuclei  through  the 
mouth.  Higher  in  the  scale,  the  hydra  has  but 
one  opening  into  the  exterior,  which  answers 
the  purpose  of  both  mouth  and  anus.  Dogs 
and  other  animals  often  lick  their  own  and  other 
animals'  genital  organs.  When  we  come  to 
human  beings  association  gives  it  a  still  greater 
significance  as  an  organ  of  sexual  impulse. 
The  lips  of  the  vaginal  orifice  (the  labia)  have 
by  association  of  ideas  a  strong  similarity  to 
those  of  the  mouth  ;  the  fact  that  they  have 
been  named  the  labia  is  evidence  of  the  psychic 
connection.  The  tongue  often  has  a  similar 
association  with  the  penis.  One  of  the  com- 
monest of  all  adult  perversions  is  that  involving 
cither  the  tongue  or  lips  of  one  individual  with 
the  genital  organs  of  the  other.  In  hysterics 
and  in  dreams  we  find  (by  psycho-analysis) 
that  there  is  a  frequent  displacement  from  below 
upwards  on  the  body,  i.e.,  that  parts  of  the 
upper  portion  of  the  body — mouth,  teeth,  head, 
breasts,  etc.  become  symbolic  of  the  lower 
(genital)  organs,  which  are  repressed.  Thus 
all  forms  of  kissing  are  sexual  impulses  ;    every- 

ic 


54   THE    EVOLUTION    OF    EROTIC    DESIRE 

one  knows  how  strongly  sexual  this  impulse 
is  between  persons  of  the  opposite  sex,  but  even 
with  persons  of  the  same  sex  this  touching  of 
the  lips  is  strongly  sexual,  though  the 
sexuality  is  repressed  into  the  unconscious  and 
it  is  often  merely  homosexually  symbolic 
of  the  touching  of  the  reproductive  organs. 
Not  only  is  touch  of  sexual  significance  in  the 
function  of  the  mouth,  but  so  also  is  sight. 
The  desire  to  look  at  a  woman's  lips,  the  novel- 
ists' description  of  them  as  "  tempting  lips," 
"  full  lips,"  "  delicate  lips,"  etc.,  are  all  merely 
descriptions  of  their  sexual  attraction.  The 
woman  who  rouges  her  lips  shows  an  exhibition 
complex.*  She  calls  attention  to  the  lips  of 
her  mouth  instead  of  to  the  labia  majora — 
the  sexual  idea  is  repressed  into  the  unconscious, 
the  sexual  impulse  still  finding  a  primitive  and 
symbolic  outlet.  Thumb  sucking  in  a  child  is 
a  masturbation  substitute  in  which  both  lips 
and  hand  have  sexual  significance  ;  nail  biting 
is  a  variant  of  this. 

Similar  symbolic  significances  arc  by  dis- 
placement attached  to  the  eyes  and  the  hair, 
etc. 

The  Breasts,  of  course,  have  an  actual  sexual 
significance  as  well  as  a  nutritive  one,  and  there 
are  few  lovers  who  have  not  on  many  occasions 

*  Complex.     A  repressed  group  or  constellation  of  iiid   . 


THE    EVOLUTION    OF    EROTIC    DESIRE    55 

found  touching  and  fondling  the  breasts  with 
the  hands  of  considerable  erotic  significance 
previous  to  the  final  act  of  coitus. 

The  Hands  have  acquired  a  true  sexual 
significance  with  an  altogether  bisexual  value. 
From  touching  the  breasts,  genitals,  etc.,  to 
stroking  the  hair,  skin,  etc.,  this  significance 
is  very  apparent  (cf.  the  clasping  of  the  female 
by  the  male  foreiimbs  in  lower  animals).  Again, 
in  dreams  we  find  the  hands  frequently  sym- 
bolic of  actual  reproductive  organs  and  with 
reproductive  functions.  The  touch  of  the  skin 
anywhere  affords  one  of  the  outlets  for  the 
sexual  impulses  (the  pain  and  pleasure  impulse 
of  masochism   and  sadism,   and   their  reverse). 

(2).  The  desire  to  look  at  {inspection)  and  its 
counterpart,  the  desire  to  be  looked  at  (exhibition). 

Here  again  we  have  the  aggressive  or  active 
and  the  aggressed  or  passive  desire  present  in 
both  sexes  just  as  we  have  in  the  desire  for 
cruelty,  and  for  similar  reasons,  i.e.,  that  all 
individuals  are  bisexual.  This  again,  in  auto- 
sexual  types,  becomes  a  desire  to  look  at  oneself. 

The  desire  to  look  probably  comes  from  the 
necessity  to  look.  In  those  animals  where 
senses  of  smell,  hearing,  and  so  forth  are  not 
sufficient  to  distinguish  the  sex  of  another 
individual,  it  becomes  a  necessity  to  examine 
the  reproductive  organs  of  the  other  individual 


56   THE    EVOLUTION    OF    EROTIC    DESIRE 

in  order  to  see  whether  a  suitable  aim  for  the 
discharge  of  erotic  energy  is  present.  In  the 
passive  case  (the  female)  when  an  impulse 
towards  desiring  aggression  is  present,  there 
the  converse  is  true,  i.e.,  the  desire  to  exhibit 
the  reproductive  organs,  so  that  the  aggressor 
should  recognise  his  possibilities.  In  time  this 
desire  to  look  and  be  looked  at  becomes  extended, 
and  other  parts  of  the  body  are  included  as 
well  as  the  genital  organs.  Thus  in  the  pea- 
cock and  many  other  animals  we  see  the  desire 
extended  to  the  tail  feathers  ;  i.e.,  the  parts 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  reproductive  organs 
acquire  a  suggestive  significance.  Women's 
evening  dress  is  an  unconscious  display  of  the 
same  type. 

It  is  true  that  in  the  example  of  the  peacock 
it  is  the  male  which  exhibits  himself,  and  in 
other  types  it  is  the  female.  But  it  must  be 
remembered  that  all  individuals  are  bisexual, 
and  have  both  the  desire  to  exhibit  and  to 
inspect.  Which  of  these  desires  is  in  the  ascend- 
ant in  any  particular  type  of  male  or  female 
depends  upon  its  environment  and  its  racial 
and  individual  evolution  and  on  the  course  which 
"  natural  selection  "  has  been  compelled  to  take. 

This  exhibition  tendency  is  seen  in  very  young 
children.  It  is  well  known  that  the  infant  of 
two  or  three  vears  old  loves  to  be  undressed 


THE    EVOLUTION    OF    EROTIC    DESIRE    57 

and  to  strut  about  before  an  admiring  circle  of 
friends.  "  Come  and  sec  me  bathed  "  is  a 
frequent  request  made  by  a  child  to  a  visitor 
of  whom  he  or  she  is  particularly  fond.  In  this 
case  we  have  the  passive  form  of  exhibitionism. 
In  the  active  form  children  delight  to  peep 
through  keyholes  to  see  other  individuals  with 
out  their  clothes,  etc.,  etc.  The  desire  to 
exhibit  their  genital  organs  is  more  strong  in 
females  than  in  males  in  whom  the  desire  to 
look  is  stronger  as  a  rule.  Moreover,  by  asso- 
ciation the  desire  is  transferred  to  other  "  erotic 
zones,"  i.e.,  the  desire  to  look  at  the  skin,  the 
breasts,  the  mouth,  the  anus,  the  hair,  the  eyes 
and  general  shape.  Indeed,  we  can  see  from  this 
that  the  idea  of  beauty  in  human  beings  is  a 
purely  arbitrary  one,  based  on  the  conscious 
conception  of  sex.  In  the  South  Sea  Islands 
the  greatest  beauty  may  consist  in  a  Hat  nose  ; 
in  Rome  of  an  aquiline  nose  ;  in  other  countries, 
of  some  other  type  of  nose. 

Indeed,  artists  who  make  a  speciality  of 
figure  painting  are  displacing  a  strong  exhibition 
tendency,  while  those  who  paint  other  pictures 
of  Nature1  may  be  said  to  be  sublimating  their 
tendency. 

By  sublimation  we  mean  changing  the  energy 
of  sexual  desire  into  activities  which  have  no 
sexual  meaning. 


58   THE    EVOLUTION    OF    EROTIC    DESIRE 

By  displacement  we  mean  changing  the  energy 
into  another  form  of  sexuality  which  though 
disguised  is  yet  fully  sexual. 

Now  the  community  has  decreed  for  various 
reasons  (some  of  which  are  good  and  others 
bad)  that  this  desire  to  look  and  to  be  looked 
at  is  unwholesome  :  therefore  we  are  taught 
to  repress  it,  with  two  results. 

Firstly,  it  may  be  changed  to  its  opposite 
— shame  and  modesty  (cf.  cruelty-— pity).  And 
since  women  have  the  innate  desire  to  exhibit 
more  strongly  developed  and  from  infancy  are 
more  strongly  taught  to  repress  all  things 
pertaining  to  sex,  so  in  women  are  shame  and 
modesty  more  highly  developed. 

As  in  the  case  of  pity  there  is  no  virtue  in 
"  modesty  "  ;  it  is  one  of  those  characteristics 
purely  dependent  on  the  early  environment 
of  the  individual,  and  the  more  marked  it  is 
the  stronger  is  the  unconscious  impulse  of 
exhibitionism  in  that  individual.  Indeed,  it 
is  well  known  to  many  (quite  apart  from  the 
facts  elicited  by  psychoanalysis)  that  the  child 
with  the  greatest  exhibition  tendencies  grows 
up  the  most  modest  and  has  the  most  shame  ; 
and  moreover,  that  under  suitable  circum- 
stances (hysterias,  etc.)  after  reaching  puberty 
the  most  modest  person  may  become  the  most 
shameless  exhibitionist. 


THE    EVOLUTION    OF    EROTIC    DESIRE    59 

Secondly,  this  exhibition  tendency,  instead 
of  sublimating  itself  as  its  antithesis,  may 
project  itself,  i.e.,  it  may  be  displaced  from  the 
actual  person  on  to  things  belonging  to  or 
surrounding  the  person.  The  best  example 
of  this  is  seen  again  in  dress,  and  once  again  in 
women's  dress  more  often  than  in  men's.  To 
exhibit  oneself  in  fine  clothing  (and  on  the  part 
of  the  other  sex,  to  admire  the  one  in  fine  cloth- 
ing) is  merely  a  displacement  of  the  sexual 
impulse  of  exhibitionism.  While  in  cases  where 
there  is  a  good  deal  of  repression  of  normal 
sexuality,  and  hence  a  return  to  the  infantile 
autosexuality,  we  have  the  desire  to  look  at 
oneself  and  examine  one's  own  reproductive 
organs,  etc.,  transformed  into  a  desire  to  wear 
beautiful  underclothing,*  and  so  forth — shame 
preventing  the  actual  primitive  impulse  from 
being  gratified.  These  methods  are  all  very 
low  types  of  substitution,  however,  and  as  we 
shall  see  at  a  later  period,  by  no  means  useful 
now  to  the  community  ;  and  no  doubt  evolution, 
which  is  gradually  tending  towards  the  in- 
tellectual rather  than  the  physical  will  bring 
forward  non-differentiation  of  men  and  women 
in  clothing,  hairdressing,  and  so  forth.  At 
present  about  nine-tenth  of  our  shops,  adver- 

*Narc:s;stic  and  parental  complexes  also    play    their  part  in  this 
particular  case. 


60    THE    EVOLUTION    OF    EROTIC    DESIRE 

tisements  and  pleasures  are  engaged  upon  accen- 
tuating this  form  of  sexual  exhibitionism  in 
one  way  or  another.  The  early  Puritans  and 
Quakers  evidently  partly  realised  these  points, 
as  is  shown  by  their  manner  of  dress  and 
writings. 

From  the  eye  we  pass  on  to  the  other  organs 
— those  of  hearing  and  smelling  in  connection 
with  sex.  Of  hearing  we  need  say  little  ;  it 
plays  its  part  in  the  love-making  of  birds 
especially,  but  is  also  found  in  other  animals. 
The  song  of  the  bird  in  the  breeding  season  is 
not  far  removed  from  the  human  lover's  voice, 
praising  the  visual  charms  of  the  loved  one,  or 
giving  vent  to  songs  which  bring  to  the  imagina- 
tion the  pleasures  of  sex  in  their  disguised  and 
sublimated  forms. 

Smelling  also  plays  its  part.  In  many  animals 
the  distinctive  smell  of  the  male  and  female 
organs  is  of  great  importance  in  distinguishing 
sex,  and  it  cannot  be  denied  that  it  gradually 
assumes  a  sexual  pleasure  and  impulse  of  its 
own  :  moreover,  the  anus  being  situated  close 
to  the  reproductive  organs  the  sense  of  smell 
of  the  one  is  always  associated  with  the  sense 
of  smell  of  the  other.  Anyone  who  has  watched 
two  dogs  or  a  dog  and  a  bitch  smelling  the 
genital  and  excretory  organs  of  the  other  and 
wagging    their    tails    in    evident    pleasure    will 


Tin-l    EVOLUTION    OF    EROTIC    DESIRE    Oi 

realise  this.  It  will  similarly  be  realised  why 
dogs  apparently  smell  one  another's  excrement 
with  pleasure,  and  why  when  they  discover 
the  spot  where  another  dog  has  micturated 
they  through  association  of  ideas  do  the  same 
at  the  same  place. 

Now  in  children  there  is  also  a  considerable 
liking  for  the  smell  of  excrement  and  in  adults 
it  sometimes  persists  (again  depending  on  en- 
vironment and  amount  of  repression).  The 
community  of  humans,  however,  has  placed  its 
ban  upon  the  open  enjoyment  of  this  form  of 
erotic  impulse,  and  its  opposite  becomes  its 
sublimation — disgust  and  loathing  of  excrement 
and  its  accompanying  smell,  and  also  by  associ- 
ation, of  any  smell  suggestive  of  it,  e.g.,  rotten 
eggs,  onions,  garlic,  etc.  And  the  greater  the 
normal  inclination  of  the  individual  towards 
this  pleasure  of  sexual  smell  the  greater  does 
his  loathing  become  on  account  of  its  re- 
pression. 

We  deduce  then  that  sexual  impulses  art- 
many  and  varied,  and  that  the  final  act  of 
coitus  is  but  one  of  many.  Moreover,  that 
any  of  these  sexual  impulses  may  have  auto- 
sexual,  homosexual  or  heterosexual  aims  accord- 
ing to  various  circumstances  which  will  be 
discussed  in  the  next  chapter. 


62   THE    EVOLUTION    OF    EROTIC    DESIRE 

SUMMARY 

1.  A  large  amount  of  psychic  energy  originally 

devoted  to  self-preservation  has  been  diverted 
towards  self-propagation.  Modern  sex- 
uality, therefore,  is  greater  than  is  necessary 
or  desirable,  and  much  energy  might  be 
sublimated  along  intellectual  or  physical 
paths. 

2.  All  individuals  are  bisexual  both  physically 

and  psychically. 

3.  Sexual   aims   are   of  three   kinds — the   auto- 

sexual,  the  homosexual,  the  heterosexual. 
Each  is  normal  at  various  stages  of  life. 

4.  The   sexual   impulse   is   made   up   of  many 

partial  impulses,  and  is  not  in  itself 
merely  the  impulse  towards  a  definite  act 
of  coitus  with  one  of  the  opposite  sex. 

5.  Early   teaching   and   environment    cause    us 

to  repress  both  sexual  aims  and  sexual 
impulses  whether  normal  or  abnormal,  in- 
to the  unconscious.  Adult  sexuality  de- 
pends on  the  type  and  amount  of  such 
repression  and  on  the  type  and  amount  of 
compensatory  sublimation  obtained. 


CHAPTER    IV 

The  Fate  of  Erotic  Impulses  and  Erotic 

Aims 

In  the  last  chapter  we  discussed  the  question 
of  psycho-sexual  energy,  aims  and  impulses, 
and  we  regarded  the  latter  as  being  a  kind  of 
connecting  link  between  the  erotic  energy  and 
the  erotic  aims.  We  have  now  to  consider 
what  happens  normally  to  these  impulses  and 
aims  and  also  what  may  abnormally  take  place. 
In  actual  life  three  things  which  we  have 
illustrated  in  the  last  chapter  may  happen  ; 
namely,  in  the  first  place,  the  primitive  instincts 
may  be  manifested  with  but  little  repression  ; 
in  the  second  place,  they  may  be  repressed  and 
shown  in  a  disguised  form  ;  in  the  third  place, 
they  ma}'  be  repressed  and  sublimated.  For 
example  :  as  regards  the  exhibition  tendency,  it 
may  proceed  through  life  as  a  desire  either  to  ex- 
hibit or  to  look  at  the  reproductive  organs  and 
erogenous  zones,  according  to  the  predominant 
factor  in  the  bisexual  tendency  of  the  individual  ; 
it  may  displace  itself  by  hiding  the  desire  to  be 
looked  at  in  so  far  as  the  reproductive  organs 
are  concerned  and  show  itself  in  the  desire  to 

6- 


64        THE  FATE  OF  EROTIC  IMPULSES 


I 

g 

I 


5 

§ 

^ 


Erotic 
Energy 


Erof/cA/m 


SES?.3 

I 


9 

Hi 

r 

MPS 

r\ 

SKSti 

> 
1 

1 

* 

I 

I 

0 

1l 

Js 

$ 

^ 
^ 

& 

^ 

1. 


£ 


•g 


^> 


THE    FATE    OF  EROTIC    IMPULSES        65 

be  looked  at  (or  to  look  at)  in  relation  to  clothing 
or  to  other  parts  of  the  body.  Thirdly,  it  may 
be  sublimated  into  intellectual  or  physical 
pursuits.  This  applies  not  only  to  the  ex- 
hibition tendency  just  quoted,  but  to  all  the 
other  forms  of  erotic  impulses  previously  enumer- 
ated and  shown  in  the  accompanying  diagram. 
In  this  diagram  the  primitive  energy 
is  shown  as  contained  in  a  tank  labelled  "  erotic 
energy,"  with  various  pipes  leading  from  it. 
These  pipes  represent  the  outlets  for  the  follow- 
ing infantile  tendencies  (primitive  impulses), 
namely — aggression,  exhibition,  contact,  im- 
pulses of  the  reproductive  organs,  and  impulses 
connected  with  other  parts  of  the  body  (anus, 
mouth,  etc.)  ;  an  overflow  pipe  is  also  shown, 
which  conducts  the  impulses  of  intellectual  and 
physical  sublimation.  As  I  have  previously 
explained,  the  overflow  pipe  will  not  carry  the 
whole,  but  a  great  part  of  the  energy,  and  it 
will  be  observed  that  in  the  figure  that  it  does 
not  drain  the  tank  and  is  not  placed  quite  at 
the  bottom  thereof  :  in  other  words,  howowr 
much  we  sublimate  our  energy  there  is  .always 
some  left  over  which  must  flow  through  primitive 
channels  or  remain  in  the  tank,  and  this  amount 
depends  on  the  efficiency  of  the  individual, 
which  in  its  turn  depends  largely  on  early 
environment.     Now    all    these    erotic    impulses 


66      THE    FATE    OF    EROTIC    IMPULSES 

are  further  shewn  in  the  figure  to  flow  into  a 
second  tank,  which  has  been  labelled  "  erotic 
aims";  we  have  demonstrated  already  these  aims 
to  be  three  in  number — namely,  autosexual, 
homosexual  and  heterosexual.  Three  large 
pipes  are  placed  beneath  this  tank  and  represent 
the  outlets  for  these  three  "  aims." 

Let  us  suppose  now  that  each  pipe  may  be 
opened  or  closed  by  means  of  a  tap.  It  will  at 
once  be  seen  what  a  great  variety  of  results  may 
occur  by  means  of  closing  or  opening  some  of 
these  taps  either  in  whole  or  in  part,  and  at 
the  same  time  keeping  others  closed. 

If  we  regard  this  tank  of  erotic  energy  with 
its  various  pipes  from  the  point  of  view  of 
what  may  happen  in  childhood,  we  see 
that  in  infancy  it  is  possible  to  tarn 
off  (by  parental  education  and  general 
environment)  several  of  the  taps,  and  so  force 
the  flow  of  energy  through  only  one  or  two 
of  the  pipes  :  for  instance,  the  taps  in  the  pipes 
labelled  exhibitionism  and  aggression  may  be 
fully  opened  and  all  others  closed  ;  in  which 
case  we  produce  a  shameless  child  (exhibitionism) 
who  is  cruel  and  a  bully  (aggression),  or  one 
who,  by  sublimation,  is  very  modest  and  prudish 
(the  negative  of  exhibitionism),  and  timorous 
and  full  of  pity  (the  negative  of  aggression). 
The  same  principle,  of  course,  applies  to  any 


THE    FATE    OF    EROTIC    IMPULSES      6; 

of  the  other  impulses.  If,  however,  we  reach 
puberty  before  the  actual  repression  occurs 
(i.e.,  before  the  taps  are  turned  off) 
we  have  a  different  scries  of  events,  but 
with  a  similar  ultimate  result.  For  instance, 
if  on  account  of  circumstances  the  normal 
heterosexual  outlet  is  blocked,  the  pent- 
up  force  will  then  partly  be  damned  back, 
and  will  be  obliged  to  flow  through  one 
of  the  subsidiary  pipes,  i.e.,  either  that  of 
homosexuality,  autosexuality,  or  the  overflow 
pipe  of  sublimation.  If  it  be  also  turned  off 
rather  higher  up  in,  say,  all  the  outlets  belonging 
to  the  reproductive  organs,  it  will  have  to  choose 
between  aggression  and  its  variations,  exhibition 
and  its  variations  and  so  forth.  As  an  example, 
suppose  a  woman  to  be  brought  up  to  the 
age  of  puberty  in  an  apparently  normal  manner. 
Owing  to  training  and  environment  hetero- 
sexual and  autosexual  taps  are  turned  off. 
This  leaves  only  a  flow  through  homosexuality. 
Owing  to  further  circumstances  (partially  dating 
back  t<)  infantile  years)  <///  impulses  for  the 
reproductive  outlets  are  then  closed.  We  have 
left  aggression  (and  its  reverse),  exhibitionism 
(and  its  reverse),  as  impulses,  and  homosexuality 
as  the  aim.  The  characteristics  of  that  person 
will  then  be  ns  follows  :  crueltv  or  extreme 
pity   (repressed   aggression)    towards  members  of 


68      THE    FATE    OF    EROTIC    IMPULSES 

the  same  sex ;  delight  in  extravagant  clothing  (or 
extreme  simplicity  and  puritanical  views  on 
the  same).  These  characteristics  represent  the 
erotic  impulses.  As  for  the  erotic  aim  (homo- 
sexual) she  will  avoid  men,  seek  the  company  of 
women,  delight  in  women's  friendships  of  an 
exaggerated  nature  in  which  profuse  kissing, 
holding  of  hands,  etc.,  takes  place,  according 
to  the  outlets  which  have  their  taps  most  fully 
open,  but  since  the  taps  for  the  reproductive 
organ  impulses  are  closed,  she  will  not  be 
conscious  of  any  homosexual  desire  in  connection 
with  these  organs. 

Or  again,  take  a  boy  in  whom  all  the  taps  in 
the  "  impulse  "  pipes  are  closed  except  those  of 
anal-eroticism  and  the  reproductive  organs,  and 
also  the  taps  in  the  "  aim  "  pipes  of  hetero-sexual 
and  homosexual  aims.  He  will  be  autosexual,  and 
the  autosexuality  will  be  satisfied  with  con- 
stipation (anal-erotic)  and  later  (for  reasons  to 
be  explained  in  a  future  place)  with  the  desire  to 
collect — stamps,  butterflies,  etc.,  (this  repre- 
sents the  anal-erotic  impulse),  and  he  will  be  a 
masturbator  (the  reproductive  organ  impulse 
with  an  autosexual  aim).  At  a  later  date  he 
may  be  very  precise,  careful  and  miserly  (anal- 
erotic  impulse). 

Of  course,  we  should  rarely  get  a  simple  case 
in    which    some   of   the   taps   were   completely 


THE    FATE    OF    EROTIC    IMPULSES      69 

turned  off  and  others  fully  open.  These  simple 
illustrations  will  be  complicated  by  the  fact 
that  there  are  many  subsidiary  impulses  not 
shown  in  the  diagram,  and  that  most  of  the 
taps  would  at  least  be  partially  open  in  varying 
degrees.  In  all  the  above  cases  we  have  as- 
sumed that  the  pipe  labelled  sublimation  is 
partly  closed.  Had  this  not  been  the  case  we 
might  for  instance  have  our  exhibitionist  sub- 
limating his  desires  and  becoming  a  decorative 
painter,  or  a  scientist  whose  desire  to  look  was 
now  turned  into  research  work  in  which  he  used 
a  microscope,  etc.  Thus  is  future  character 
formed  by  early  environment. 

From  the  points  already  mentioned  in  this 
chapter  three  terms  arise  which  are  in  common 
use  :    repression,   perversion  and  regression. 

Repression. — By  repression  we  mean  that 
infantile  or  primitive  instincts,  impulses  and 
aims  have  been  forced  completely  into  the 
unconscious  mind,  or  have,  by  environment 
and  education  been  prevented  from  becoming 
conscious  at  all.  The  complexes  and  ideas 
connected  with  these  primitive  impulses  are 
dissociated   from   the   conscious   mind. 

Perversion.  In  the  case  of  perversions  we 
deal  with  a  condition  in  which  adequate 
repression  dots  not  take  place,  and  infantile 
tendency     remains      throughout      youth      and 

r 


;o       THE    FATE    OF    EROTIC    IMPULSES 

puberty.  Thus,  if  the  infantile  tendency 
and  environment  have  been  towards  homosexual 
aims  the  adult  remains  an  acknowledged 
homosexual,  or  if  the  infantile  tendency 
is  largely  aggressive  the  adult  remains 
brutal  in  sexual  matters  ;  if  the  male 
tendency  is  in  the  ascendant  his  idea  is  to 
capture  the  female  by  force,  or  if  the  female 
tendency,  it  is  to  be  captured  by  force,  and 
so  forth.  (Cf.  masochism  or  sadism).  The  term 
perversion  merety  means  that  some  infantile 
or  primitive  erotic  aim  remains  active  and  un- 
changed at  or  after  puberty. 

Regression. — Finally,  regression  means  that 
the  individual,  owing  to  later  environment,  is 
forced  to  abandon  normal  erotic  aims  and 
impulses,  and,  having  the  path  for  sublimation 
blocked,  is  obliged  to  allow  the  dammed  back 
energy  to  flow  once  more  through  infantile 
channels  ;  thus,  if  normal  heterosexual  channels 
are  blocked  we  may  find  autosexuality,  with 
accompanying  masturbation,  or  we  may  find 
all  actual  reproductive  outlets  closed  and  nothing 
left  open  except  either  exhibition  or  aggression  ; 
in  which  case  murderers  and  lunatics  may  be  the 
result.  But  if  the  tap  of  the  pipe  of  sublimation 
be  left  open  a  large  portion  of  this  excess  erotic 
energy  may  'flow  over  and  deleterious  results 
mav  thus  be  entirely  avoided. 


THE    FATE    OF    EROTIC    IMPULSES      71 

To  summarise  :  repression  means  that 
the  infantile  erotic  desires  are  pushed 
into  the  unconscious  mind  and  kept  there, 
If  the  repression  ceases,  or  has  never 
taken  place,  a  perversion  results — a  per- 
version being  any  infantile  erotic  aim  or 
impulse  which  persists  after  the  infantile  stage 
has  been  passed.  Regression  is  a  lapse  into 
the  infantile  tendency  and  either  leads  to  a 
perversion  or  to  a  sexual  repression.  Strictly 
speaking,  all  artificial  differentiation  of  sex, 
such  as  women's  clothing,  and  so  forth,  is  a 
perversion  of  sex  ;  but  we  have  grown  used  to 
looking  upon  it  as  normal  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  it  is  in  reality  merely  an  infantile  exhibition- 
ism which  is  displaced.  This  leads  us  to  consider 
the  terms  displacement  and  sublimation  more 
fully. 

Displacement  implies  that  the  energy  of  an 
erotic  impulse  has  been  forced  from  its  obvious 
path,  which  is  sexual,  into  another  path  which 
is  still  sexual  in  its  aim  but  is  so  disguised  that 
the  individual  does  not  recognise  it  in  its  true 
form.  It  is  a  kind  of  self-deception,  and  still 
retains  its  strong  erotic  nature. 

Sublimation  is  more  than  a  displacement  ; 
in  it  the  energy  of  an  erotic  impulse  is  turned 
into  a  channel  which  is  no  longer  sexual  but  is 
either  purely  intellectual  or  physical  ;    emotion, 


72      THE    FATE    OF    EROTIC    IMPULSES 

however,  must  be  attached  to  it  still — i.e.,  pleasure 
or  excitement  must  be  obtained  from  the  new 
work.  Thus,  if  exhibitionism  be  turned  into 
attractive  clothing  we  have  a  displacement  ; 
if  the  energy  be  turned  into  religion,  music, 
scientific  pursuits  or  hockey  we  have  a  sublima- 
tion. Now  more  than  one  form  of  displacement 
can  occur.  We  may  either  have  a  displacement 
along  the  ordinary  lines  of  everyday  life,  such 
as  have  already  been  exemplified,  or  we  may 
have  another  sort  of  displacement  de- 
pending upon  the  amount  of  resistance 
present  and  the  particular  type  of  infantile 
perversion  attempting  to  come  to  the  surface — 
an  abnormal  type  —  when  we  may  have 
fetishism,  or  one  of  the  diseases  known  as  the 
psycho-neuroses. 

Fetishism  is  displacement  in  which  our  erotic 
impulse  is  concentrated  upon  an  object  which  in 
itself  has  no  erotic  significance  but  is 
merely  symbolic  of  the  true  sexual 
aim.  Thus  a  woman  may  treasure  a 
rose  worn  by  her  lover,  or  a  man  place 
great  value  on  a  glove,  handkerchief,  or  lock  of 
hair.  This  is  occasionally  carried  to  excess  in 
pathological  conditions,  and  we  may  find  that, 
an  individual's  sole  erotic  aim  consists  in  strok- 
ing hair  or  worshipping  some  article  of  clothing. 
The  original  impulse,  instead  of  carrying  him  to 


The  fate  of  erotic  impulses     73 

its  normal  aim,  has  stopped  halfway,  and  in 
itself  become  an  aim.  In  the  case  of  a  psycho- 
neurosis,  however,  a  totally  different  state  of 
affairs  occurs.  The  infantile  impulse  which  is 
trying  to  gain  consciousness  is  strongly  resisted 
by  the  censor  of  the  conscious  mind,  (of  which 
censor  we  shall  speak  in  the  next  chapter),  and 
instead  of  reaching  consciousness  in  its  infantile 
form  it  expends  its  energy  in  either  a  physical 
or  a  mental  disability,  which  goes  by  the  name  of 
a  psycho-ml^rosis,  or  "  functional  "  disease, 
the  mechanism  of  which,  as  being  of  considerable 
importance,  will  have  two  future  chapters  to 
itself. 

There  is  a  third  way  in  which  these  infantile 
erotic  wishes  and  their  repressed  conflicts  with 
the  conscious  mind  find  outlet,  and  that  is  in 
dreams. 

It  is  well  at  this  point  to  make  it  quite  clear 
that  the  repressed  material  found  in  psycho- 
analysis is  by  no  means  chiefly  of  a  grossly 
sexual  nature.  All  kinds  of  unpleasant  con- 
flicts are  repressed.  Conflicts  of  duty  as  opposed 
to  pleasure  or  expediency — every  kind  of  un- 
pleasant idea  which  we  try  to  avoid  and  repress 
is  present.  But  underlying  all  the  psycho- 
neuroses  we  find  various  forms  of  misplaced 
psychic  energy,  belonging  to  some  erotic 
infantile     impulse     or     aim     dammed     back, 


74      THE    FATE    OF    EROTIC    IMPULSES 

and  it  is  for  this  reason  that  these  aims 
and  impulses  must  be  specially  dwelt  upon. 
They  are  those  which  normally  we  refuse 
to  consider  as  part  of  our  psychic 
individuality. 

SUMMARY    OF    CHAPTER    IV 

i.  The  main  characteristics  of  an  individual 
depend  largely  on  which  of  his  erotic 
impulses  are  encouraged  and  which  re- 
pressed during  infancy,  and  upon  the 
amount  of  sublimation  attained. 

2.  If  circumstances   arise   at  puberty   or   after, 

which  are  inimical  to  the  normal  flow  of 
erotic  energy,  the  energy  will  tend  to  seek 
an  outlet  through  the  channels  which  were 
most  widely  open  in  infancy — i.e.,  regres- 
sion takes  place. 

3.  Repression  is  necessary  for  the  normal  exis- 

tence of  the  individual,  but  suitable 
sublimation  contemporaneously  is  of  the 
utmost  importance. 

4.  Where    adequate    sublimation    has    not    been 

attained,  there  is  a  tendency  to  use  dis- 
placement, especially  in  females  under 
present  methods  of  education  and  environ- 
ment. Displacement  is  waste  of  psychic 
energy  and  is  often  harmful  to  the  com- 
munity. 


CHAPTER    V 

Parental  Complexes* 

The  most  important  factor  in  the  formation  of 
the  character  of  any  individual  is  the  influence 
of  the  parents.  This  is  a  self-evident  fact  ; 
but  what,  unfortunately,  is  not  so  evident  is  that 
the  influence  which  acts  most  powerfully  on  the 
child's  existence  is  not  the  conscious,  directive 
and  educational  influence  but  the  unconscious, 
seemingly  unimportant  details  of  behaviour 
and  speech,  which  so  many  parents  would  be- 
lieve to  be  of  little  or  no  effect  in  the  formation 
of  the  young  child's  character.  This  belief 
is  shown  by  analysis  to  be  absolutely  wrong. 
Unconsidered  and  apparently  trivial  details  in 
the  behaviour  of  the  parents  during  the  first  five 
years  of  the  eliitd's  life  make  a  far  greater  im- 
pression on  its  mind  and  have  far  more  weight 
in  (lie  formation  of  its  character  than  any  other 
factors  occurring  later. 

Before  going  into  the  details  of  this  it  is 
necessary  to  discuss  shortly  the  problem  ol 
incest,    for   our   of    the    mistakes    that    is    most 

*A   c-  'triplex   is  a  must.  llrui<  >n  nr  i;r  nip  i  'f  i  '<  ,<     v.  hicli  Is  n-pn      e<! 
in  t      tin-  uncoil  ...i  '!i     nf   v.hicli    '.m,   r.rvi'f    l>o-n  •     n  ->  i    ii:>. 

75 


76  PARENTAL    COMPLEXES 

commonly  made  is  that  since  Christianity  has 
drawn  up  the  table  of  affinity  forbidding  mar- 
riage between  near  relatives  therefore  no  sexual 
attraction  between  such  normally  exists.     This 
assumption  is  very  wide  of  the  mark,  and  in  the 
case  of  the  small  child  in  the  first  3^ear  or  so  of 
its  life  it  is  in  every  instance  the  reverse  of  true. 
Children    are    primitive    creatures  ;     their    un- 
conscious feelings  have  very  little  repression  ; 
their  instincts  are  the  primitive  instincts  of  their 
fore-fathers,    and   they   remain   primitive   until 
education   and   environment —however   elemen- 
tary the  nature  of  these — shall  have  repressed 
and    moulded    them.     It    will    be    remembered 
that  the  Incas  of  Peru  and  certain  ruling  castes  of 
Egypt  were  obliged  to  marry  their  own  sisters, 
and  that  children  were  born  to  them  :    nor  was 
this  looked  upon  as  an  incestuous  practice  by 
these  peoples.     Such  marriages  still  take  place 
amongst  certain  primitive  tribes.     Among  ani- 
mals, even  those  of  the  highest  types  such  as  the 
dog,    no    incest    barrier    exists  :     not    only    do 
brothers   and   sisters   of   the   dog   family   have 
sexual  relationship  but  mothers  and  sons,  especi- 
ally if  the  mother  be  young  at  the  time  the  son 
is  born.     Thus  the  question  of  affinity  is  chiefly 
one  of  religion  and  early  training  and  not  of  the 
natural  instincts  of  the  unconscious. 

Actual    analysis    shows    that    in    practically 


PARENTAL    COMPLEXES  77 

every  normal  human  being  the  first  love  of  a 
son  is  for  his  mother,  and  of  a  daughter  for  her 
father,  and  that  this  love  is  of  an  erotic  nature, 
although    of   course    this    does   not   necessarily 
mean  erotic  as  applied  to  the  reproductive  organs 
but  that  the  infantile,  erotic  impulses  of  touch, 
sight,  aggression,  or  whatever  they  may  be,  are 
attracted  by  the  parent  of  the  opposite  sex,  and 
that    a    certain    erotic    bond    which    we    term 
"  fixation  "  is  formed  between  the  child  and  that 
parent.     This  fixation  varies  in  strength  accord- 
ing   to    circumstances,    and    according    to    its 
strength   is    formed   the   subsequent    love   type 
of  that  particular  child.     It  is  not  necessarily 
upon   the   parent   that   the   fixation   is   formed  : 
if   the    parent   dies,    or   lives   apart    during   the 
child's  infancy  the  fixation  would  be  directed 
towards  whoever  may  take  that  parent's  place— 
the    parent's    substitute.     The    two    complexes 
that  are  thus  formed  are  respectively  termed 
the  tEdipus  Complex,  i.e.,  the  love  of  the  son  for 
the  mother,  and  the  Eleetra  Complex,  i.e.,  the 
love  of   the   daughter   for   her   father,   or   more 
commonly  they  are  both  included  under  the  term 
(Jidipus  Complex,  after  the  play  by  Sophocles, 
in    which    (Edipus    unknowingly    married     his 
mother.     Freud  terms   these   the   nuclear  com- 
plexes. 
In  the  normal  individual  this  fixation  serves 


7&  PARENTAL    COMPLEXES 

its  purpose,  is  gradually  repressed,  and  the 
energy  behind  it  is  then  transferred  to  other 
love  objects  ;  and  it  will  be  found  that  if  the 
fixation  has  been  fairly  strong  in  childhood  the 
type  of  man  that  the  adult  woman  marries 
corresponds  in  a  high  degree  to  the  father  upon 
whom  there  was  this  early  fixation,  and  vice 
versa  in  the  case  of  the  son  and  his  mother. 
This  is  borne  out  in  a  striking  manner  by 
records  of  cases  in  which  the  daughter  of  a 
drunkard  will  marry  a  drunkard,  the  daughter 
of  an  old  man  a  man  much  older  than  herself, 
or  a  daughter  who  has  much  admired  some 
mental  attribute  in  her  father  will  marry  a  man 
who  has  this  attribute  very  strongly  defined  ; 
and  the  same  applies  to  the  choice  by  a  man  of 
his  wife.  Although  of  course  in  both  instances 
the  resemblance  is  not  very  marked  to  the  out- 
sider it  will  nearly  always  be  found  by 
analysis.  There  is  one  exception  to  this  rule, 
and  that  is  where  a  fixation  has  been  so  strong 
and  so  near  the  surface  that  marriage  with  a  love 
type  strikingly  like  the  parent  in  any  respect 
would  bring  the  incestuous  impulses  of  the  child 
towards  the  parent  too  near  the  surface.  Here 
if  marriage  takes  place  we  may  find  the  chosen 
one  to  possess  attributes,  especially  those  of  a 
physical  kind,  of  exactly  the  opposite  to  those 
of  the  parent.     The  daughter  of  an  extremely 


PARENTAL    COMPLEXES  79 

well-built  father  would  for  instance  marry  a 
small,  thin  man,  upon  exactly  the  same  principle 
which  we  have  discussed  in  an  earlier  chapter — 
that  the  exact  opposite  often  disguises  a  strong 
primitive  instinct  of  an  infantile  character  and 
prevents  it  from  becoming  conscious.  (C/., aggres- 
sion and  pity  ;  exhibitionism  and  modesty,  etc.) 
In  psycho-analysis  this  (Edipus  complex  is 
nearly  always  found  to  be  strongly  marked  and 
of  the  utmost  importance,  for  it  often  lies  at  the 
root  of  the  whole  of  a  patient's  troubles.  Any 
superabundance  of  affection  on  the  part  of  the 
parent  will  cause  the  fixation  to  be  too  strong 
for  normal  repression  or  for  transference  to  take 
place.  Thus  we  often  find  that  the  "  only  " 
child  who  is  much  spoiled  and  petted  becomes 
the  subject  of  a  psychoneurosis  based  on  these 
complexes.  It  is  a  common  practice  for  mothers 
to  fondle  their  children,  to  hold  them  tightly,  to 
kiss  them  affectionately,  and  to  allow  them,  for 
instance,  to  come  into  their  beds  in  the  early 
morning  ;  and  by  all  these  actions  they  are 
naturally  arousing  the  primitive  sexual  impulses 
in  the  unconscious  of  the  infant.  These  impul- 
ses, as  has  been  previously  explained,  have 
nothing  to  do  in  tin1  early  stages  with  the  repro- 
ductive organs,  but  merely  act  upon  all  theother 
manifold  erotic  zones  that  we  have  already  dis- 
cussed.    Later   they   may    unconsciously   affect 


8o  PARENTAL    COMPLEXES 

the  reproductive  organs  also.  In  the  case  of  a 
boy  a  very  strong  fixation  upon  the  mother  may 
now  be  formed  ;  in  the  case  of  a  girl,  upon  whom 
the  mother  does  not  as  a  rule  shower  quite  so 
much  exuberant  affection,  a  weaker  homosexual 
affection  may  be  formed.  The  father  who 
idolises  his  infant  daughter  may  in  the  same  way 
produce  a  fixation,  perhaps  even  before  the 
infant  can  walk  and  talk. 

Now  suppose  that  this  exuberant  affection  is 
repressed  after  the  first  three  or  four  years  of 
the  child's  life,  and  becomes  apparently  more 
normal  when  the  age  of  the  child  is  five  or  six  ; 
let  us  see  what  may  result.  Firstly,  the  child 
may  grow  up  with  an  exaggerated  notion  of  its 
duty  towards  the  parent  of  the  opposite  sex  ; 
secondly,  it  may  never  discover  a  mate  whose 
perfections  come  up  to  the  perfection  of  the 
parent  ;  thirdly,  if  it  should  discover  such  a 
mate,  its  unconscious  fixation  upon  the  parent 
and  the  resemblance  of  the  mate  to  that  parent 
will  often  create  a  kind  of  subconscious  identifi- 
cation of  the  mate  with  the  parent  ;  then  the 
actual  conscious  sexual  intercourse  with  the 
mate  becomes  a  form  of  incest,  with  the  result 
that  we  get  a  case  of  sexual  impotence  in  the 
man,  or  of  sexual  anaesthesia*  in  the  woman, 

*  Sexual  impotence  and  sexual  anaesthesia  have  many  other 
infantile  causes  besides  the  one  explained,  most  of  them,  however, 
lend  themselves  to  analysis. 


PARENTAL    COMPLEXES  8r 

and  since  the  spoiling  of  the  daughter  by  her 
father  is  by  no  means  an  uncommon  occurrence, 
so  we  find  sexual  anaesthesia  and  sexual  disgust 
on  the  part  of  a  wife  towards  her  husband  a  fairly 
common  occurrence,  which  can  only  be  rectified 
by  analysis  of  this  (Edipus  complex  ;    and  even 
then,  if  the  fixation  is  very  strong  we  may  find 
the  analysis  a  long  and  difficult  one.     Another 
result  which  may  follow  is  that  a  strong  fixation 
upon  the  parent  of  the  opposite  sex  prevents 
any    transference    of     erotic    energy    to    other 
members  of  the  opposite  sex  :    and  if  the  erotic 
impulses  of  this  individual  be  very  strong  we 
find   them   turned   off  into  the  easier  channels 
of    homosexuality,    where    they    become    fixed. 
This  homosexuality  may    be    conscious    and 
practised  and  carried  on  into  adult  life  :    or  it 
may  be  repressed  and  either  sublimated,  as  in  the 
case  of  strong  friendships  with  members  of  the 
same  sex,  or  it  may  be  permitted  to  retain  its 
primitive  infantile  erotic  impulses,  quite    apart 
from    the    reproductive    organs,    and    result    in 
those  eases  which  we  see  of  women  who  delight 
to  hold  hands,  to  kiss  one  another  rather  pas- 
sionately, to  visit  one  another's  bedrooms  and 
inspect   clothing,   and   to  give  evidence  of  this 
sexuality  in  a  thousand  and  one  other  displaced 
forms.     This   sort    of   thing'   is   mop*   noticeable 
in   women   than   men,   because  strong   parental 


82  PARENTAL    COMPLEXES 

fixation  is  more  common  in  women,  and  their 
education  and  environment  help  to  repress  the 
normal  sexual  growth  more  than  in  the  case  of 
men.  It  is  a  common  error  to  explain  this  by 
saying  that  women  are  more  affectionate  than 
men,  whereas  if  men  were  to  perform  some  of  the 
acts  which  we  have  described,  everyone  would 
suspect  them  of  being  homosexual. 

The  true  facts  of  the  case  are,  then,  that 
women  have  a  much  stronger  leaning  towards 
homosexuality  than  men,  and  this  is  owing  to 
the  early  training  and  environment  of  women. 
But  that  this  is  so  is  not  often  recognised  : 
and  those  who  have  a  repressed  or  disguised 
complex  will  be  the  last  to  discover  that  complex 
in  themselves.  Thus  many  of  the  acts  which 
we  look  upon  as  perfectly  normal  and  natural 
should,  in  reality,  be  classed  scientifically  as 
perversions  :  while  it  will  be  seen  that  a  vast 
number  of  harmful  results  may  follow  every 
abnormal  fixation  upon  the  parents :  these 
are  augmented  when  early  fixation  upon  a 
brother  or  a  sister,  either  of  a  homosexual 
or  heterosexual  nature,  takes  place.  The  fix- 
ation of  a  boy  upon  his  mother  may  at 
her  death,  or  upon  some  other  occasion, 
be  transferred  to  a  sister  who,  in  every  re- 
spect is  the  nearest  ideal  to  his  mother,  with 
the  added  advantage  that  she  is  37ounger  :   and 


PARENTAL    COMPLEXES  83 

the  fixation  may  remain  there  permanently. 
As  a  rule  the  stronger  the  fixation  upon  the 
parent  of  the  opposite  sex  the  stronger  will 
become  the  jealousy,  although  repressed  and 
unconscious,  towards  the  parent  of  the  same 
sex.  The  father  becomes  in  the  unconscious 
the  rival  of  the  son  for  the  mother's  affection. 
This  is  very  commonly  seen  in  an  undisguised 
form  in  children  :  a  boy  will  be  pleased  when  his 
father  is  out  in  the  evening  and  he  can  take  his 
father's  place  at  table.  If  his  father  is  staying 
away  it  is  usual  for  him  to  ask  if  he  may  sleep 
with  his  mother,  and  sometimes  he  will  suggest 
playing  at  husband  and  wife  and  calling  her 
by  her  christian  name,  or  a  thousand  and  one 
other  playful  and  seemingly  innocent  childish 
remarks  and  actions  of  the  boy  trying  to  take 
his  father's  place  will  occur  to  almost  anyone. 
Moreover,  it  is  by  no  means  uncommon  to  see 
from  quite  early  infancy  an  antagonism  between 
father  and  son — a  desire  on  the  part  of  the 
latter  that  the  father  should  be  out  of  the  way  : 
and  should  the  father  quarrel  with  his  mother 
on  the  trivial  matters  of  everyday  life,  as  will 
occur  in  every  household,  the  child  will  often 
fume  and  rage  against  his  father  as  he  either 
takes  his  mother's  part  or  refrains  from  doing  so 
with  the  greatest  difficulty.  Exactly  the  same 
may  take  place  with  the  girl  and   her  mother. 


84  PARENTAL    COMPLEXES 

This  repressed  incest  desire,  with  its  accom- 
panying jealousy  and  unconscious  hatred  breeds 
a  sense  of  guilt,  and  this  in  turn  will  cause  the 
child,  or  in  later  years  the  adult,  to  give  on 
occasion  exaggerated  affection  and  deference 
to  the  parent  of  the  same  sex  as  a  compensation 
for  the  exaggerated  antagonism  and  hatred  : 
and  we  have  these  two  emotions  very  often 
alternating — antagonism  one  day  or  on  one 
occasion,  exaggerated  affection  and  deference 
on  the  next,  and  these  alternations  of  love  and 
hate  in  a  repressed  form  are  found  in  a  very 
large  number  of  the  compulsion  neuroses,  and 
in  particular  in  that  form  of  compulsion  neurosis 
which  has  become  known  as  folie  du  doute* 

The  dreams  of  patients  bear  out  these  state- 
ments.! It  is  by  no  means  uncommon  for  the 
patient  to  dream  of  the  death  of  the  parent  of 
his  own  sex  ;  that  is  to  say,  the  wish  fulfilment 
is  present  in  the  dream — not  that  the  parent 
should  actually  die,  but  that  he  should  be 
"  out  of  the  way."  On  the  other  hand,  in 
nearly  every  neurotic  patient  we  get  at  one  time 
or  another  a  series  of  unmistakeable  sex  dreams 
toward  the   parent   of  the  opposite  sex,   as  a 

*  In  folie  du  doute  we  almost  invariably  find,  as  well  as  a  strong 
parental  fixation  with  alternating  love  and  hate,  three  other  uvi- 
conrcious  infantile  complexes  strongly  marked  :  anal-eroticism, 
exhibitionism  and  homosexuality. 

f  This  part  will  not  be  completely  understood  until  the  next 
chapter,  on  "  Dreamt;,"  has  been  read. 


PARENTAL    COMPLEXES  85 

rule  slightly  disguised,  but  sometimes  absolutely 
crude,  much  to  the  patient's  disgust  and  indig- 
nation.    Brill     places    on     record     thirty-eight 
dreams   of  sexual   relation   with   the   patient's 
mothers  given  to  him  by  twenty-one  patients 
with  very  little    distortion.     About   half  these 
dreamers  reported  the  dreams  before  they  had 
heard  of   the  (Edipus  complex,  while  the  others 
told  him  after  he  had  explained  its  mechanism 
and  said  that   they   had  not   told   him  before 
because   they   had    thought    them   too   terrible 
and  revolting.     He  relates  the  same  of  nineteen 
women,    who    dreamed    that    they    had   sexual 
relations  with  their  fathers.     Much  more  often 
the  dreams  are  slightly  disguised,  with  the  father 
or   the   mother   masked.     Thus   one   of   Brill's 
female  homosexual  patients  told  him  that  the 
only  dream  in  which  a  man  had  ever  played  a 
part  was  one  in  which  she  had  dreamed  that  she 
had  sexual  intercourse  with  one  of  her  governors  : 
but  in  giving  associations  to  the  dream  she  said 
that  she  always  referred  to  her  father  as  "  the 
governor,"   and.   as  is  well-known   by   psycho- 
analysts, president,  governor,  priest,  mayor,  king 
etc.,    in    dreams    always    refer    to    the    father. 
More   often,    however,    the    personality   of   the 
parent  or  of  the  patient  is  quite  recognisable  : 
it    is   the  sexual   act   itself  which   is   disguised, 
and  yet  only  faintly  or  by  some  very  typical 


86  PARENTAL    COMPLEXES 

symbolism  which  the  veriest  beginner  in  analy- 
sis would  recognise  without  having  to  ask  for 
associations.  Several  excellent  examples  of 
these  dreams  are  given  in  Brill's  work  on  the 
Theory  and  Practical  Application  of  Psycho- 
Analysis. 

I  have  already  referred  to  the  fact  that  a 
fixation  may  often  be  turned  from  a  parent  to  a 
brother  or  sister  :  and,  moreover,  that  a  fixation 
may  tend  to  preserve  the  individual  in  the 
infantile  homosexual  state.  These  fixations  may 
become  very  much  more  strongly  established  if 
brothers  and  sisters  are  allowed  to  occupy  the 
same  bedroom,  or,  worse  still,  sleep  in  the  same 
bed.  Again,  there  is  no  actual  primitive  incest 
barrier  between  brothers  and  sisters  or  between 
brothers  alone  or  sisters  alone,  and  homosexual 
and  even  heterosexual  behaviour  is  quite  com- 
mon with  children  under  such  conditions.  It 
may  often  have  very  much  more  serious  conse- 
quences if  one  girl  sleeps  with  another  girl  or  one  boy 
with  another  boy  than  if  in  childhood  members 
of  the  opposite  sex  are  put  to  sleep  together  :  the 
fixations  underlying  many  unhappy  psychoncu- 
roses  may  then  originate. 

Another  variant  of  this  parental  complex  is 
sometimes  found,  and  that  is  a  strong  homo- 
sexual fixation  on  the  parent  of  the  same  sex. 
It  is  brought  about  by  circumstances  similar 


PARENTAL    COMPLEXES  87 

to  those  which  cause  the  (Edipus  complex,  and 
is  especially  marked  where  the  parent  of  the 
opposite  sex  has  died  during  the  early  infancy 
of  the  child, |but  this  latter  is  by  no  means 
essential.  It  depends  on  the  fact  already 
mentioned  that  all  individuals  are  bisexual, 
and  that  a  woman  in  the  unconscious  as  in  the 
conscious,  often  plays  the  masculine  role  and  the 
man  a  feminine  one.  Indeed,  it  must  be  recog- 
nised that  the  pleasure  obtained  by  the  female 
in  actual  sexual  intercourse  is  created  in  the 
nerves  of  the  clitoris,  i.e.,  in  her  male  reproductive 
organ  and  hence  is  of  the  masculine  type. 

This  brings  us  to  mention  shortly  one  of  the 
reasons  why  neuroses  and  psychoneuroses 
are  more  common  in  women  than  in 
men  and  why  they  are  more  fixed  in 
infantile  sexuality  as  a  rule.  It  is  this — 
the  female  is  in  fact  not  very  different 
from  the  male.  As  a  child  this  is  especially  the 
case,  but  from  a  very  early  age  she  is  surrounded 
by  the  artificial  differentiation  which  civilisation 
has  built  up  and  she  is  forced  into  repressing  her 
normal  male  instincts  and  assuming  an  exag- 
gerated female  pose.  Skirts,  exaggerated  sex 
courtesys  and  various  other  follies  are  quickly 
thrust  upon  her  with  the  result  of  very  much 
repression  and  infantile  fixation.  She  is  made 
to  become  a  more  artificial   product   than   the 


88  PARENTAL    COMPLEXES 

male  in  the  early  years  when  there  should  be  no 
differentiation  at  all.  Some  observers  have 
added  the  difficulty  which  a  woman  at  puberty 
has  of  transferring  her  sexual  centre  of 
gratification  in  the  organs  of  reproduction 
from  the  clitoris  to  the  vagina.  I  do 
not  agree  with  this,  for  having  collected 
statistics  from  many  sources  besides  that 
of  my  own  patients  I  find  that  no  such 
change  takes  place  as  a  rule  in  normal  women. 
The  clitoris  generally  remains  the  essential  seat 
of  gratification,  and  in  those  cases  where  such 
a  change  is  found  it  is,  I  believe,  a  return  to  an 
infantile  erotic  zone,  in  the  neck  of  the  bladder, 
the  vagina,  and  the  rectum— or  perhaps  more 
correctly  it  is  a  return  to  cloacal  eroticism* 

It  will  be  seen  then,  that  criminal  parents 
ma}'  even  in  their  neglect  give  their  children 
a  better  chance  than  the  most  loving  of  parents 
give   to   their   children.      I   have   only    quoted 

*I  used  the  term  "  cloacal  eroticism"  to  designate  the  eroticism 
pertaining  to  all  that  region,  except  the  penis  and  clitoris,  supplied  by 
the  pudic  branches  of  the  sacral  plexus  ;  e.g  ,  the  anus,  scrotum,  labia 
majora,  urethra,  part  of  the  vagina  and  perineum.  (Perineal  eroticism 
is  very  common  but  has  not,  I  think,  been  definitely  mentioned  by  other 
authors  hitherto.) 

One  must  also  include  the  skin  on  the  inner  part  of  the  thigh  under 
the  same  heading,  since  from  its  nerve  supply,  e.g.,  genito-crural,  it 
probably  belongs  to  the  same  set  of  segments  in  the  human  body  as  the 
original  cloaca. 

The  other  nerve  supply  in  this  region  is  derived  from  the  hypo- 
gastric plexus  which  supplies  the  vagina  on  the  one  hand  and  the 
prostate  and  region  of  the  uterus  masculirtuson  the  other. 

Developmentally,  the  vagina  comes  from  the  lower  part  of  the 
Mullerian  Ducts  and  is  therefore  of  much  older  origin  than  the  clitoris 


PARENTAL    COMPLEXES  89 

a  few  of  the  more  striking  actions  of  the  parents 
which  may  have  this  undesirable  influence,  but  it 
must  be  remembered  that  a  very  large  number 
of  other  seemingly  unnoticed  acts  and  habits 
of  the  parents  are  taking  their  share  in  deter- 
mining the  strength  of  the  infantile  parental 
fixation.  I  will  now  give  two  or  three  examples 
of  actual  cases  in  order  to  illustrate  the  mechan- 
ism of  what  we  have  been  discussing. 

Case  1. — A  patient,  a  man  whose  father  was 
austere  and  very  strict,  and  whose  mother  was 
more  than  usually  affectionate  towards  him  in 
childhood  gave  a  history  in  which  all  his  youthful 
love  episodes  had  been  directed  towards  women 
considerably  older  than  himself.  At  twenty- 
two  he  married  a  woman  of  thirty-eight,  and 
found  that  he  was  almost,  but  not  quite,  sexually 
impotent  towards  her.  She  died,  and  shortly 
afterwards  he  again  married  a  woman  consider- 
ably older  than  himself.  Analysis  showed  him 
that  in  both  these  cases  he,  without  any  doubt 
whatever,  had  seen  the  mother  in  the  woman  he 

or  {K-nis  ;  it  would  therefore  be  much  more  in  keeping  with  nature  of 
evolution  did  we  regard  a  displacement  of  -;cxr.a!  gratification  from  the 
clitoris  to  the  vagina  as  a  regression,  rather  than  as  the  normal  pro- 
cedure 

This  is  borne  out  by  the  evidence  which  I  have  gathered  from 
about  150  rases  of  apparentlv  normal  women,  related  to  me  by  virious 
doctors 

( )f  th<\.e,  three  were  said  to  be  comp'et'dy  anaesthetic,  14 
were  said  to  have  pleasure  chit-fly  referred  to  the  vaginn  but  without 
orgasm,  in  the  remainder,  without  exception,  the  glan..  cl  •  •: ,  >  .vis  :';.  ■ 
essential  scat  of  sensation  though  about  60  of  these  cases  also  admitted 
verj  \ariable  vaginal,  perineal  and  anal  sensations  simultanei  nsly 


06  Parental  complexes 

married,  and  that  in  physical  build  and  type 
of  feature  they  were  very  much  like  his  mother. 
Case  2. — A  folie  du  doute*  in  a  young  man.  A 
history  of  extreme  affection  for  the  mother  with 
infantile  jealousy  towards  the  father  was  obtain- 
ed very  rapidly.  Later,  analysis  brought  to 
light  that  as  a  child  the  patient  had  been  very 
constipated,  and  that  from  very  early  infancy 
his  mother  had  been  in  the  habit  of  giving  him 
enemas  per  rectum  to  relieve  this  condition, 
and  he  remembered  that  he  grew  to  like  this 
operation  and  saw  that  in  his  infantile  mind  it 
had  taken  on  in  a  disguised  form  something  of 
the  nature  of  a  sexual  act  between  his  mother 
and  himself.  This  was  reinforced  at  a  later 
date  by  the  fact  that  when  he  was  ill  a  hospital 
nurse  gave  him  enemas,  and  in  this  instance  he 
stated  that  his  sexual  pleasure  was  not  even 
disguised.  He  had  phantasies  as  a  boy  as  to 
how  he  would  have  to  look  after  his  mother 
when  his  father  died  (his  father  was  twenty-five 
years  older  than  his  mother),  and  he  made 
up  his  mind  that  he  would  certainly  not  marry 
if  it  in  any  way  interfered  with  his  filial  duty. 
Gradually  he  also  came  to  identify  himself  with  his 
mother,  and  when  she  became  ill  he  took  upon 
himself  all  the  household  details  and  the  ordering 
of  the  servants.     When  she  died,  he  transferred 

*  Folie  du  doute.     Sec  footnote  on  page  8.}. 


PARENTAL    COMPLEXES  gi 

his  fixation  to  a  sister,  and  insisted  to  me  that 
he  was  going  to  take  the  part  of  a  mother  towards 
her  and  see  that  she  did  not  miss  her  mother — 
this  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  his  father  was  alive, 
that  his  aunt  came  to  act  as  housekeeper,  and 
that  there  was  no  need  for  him  continually  to 
worry  his  head  about  household  duties,  which 
he  did  daily  to  such  an  extent  that  he  had  not 
at  the  time  made  any  effort  to  earn  his  living 
in  any  profession.  His  dreams  were  strongly 
homosexual  and  anal-erotic,  except  when  they 
were  obviously  sexual  dreams  towards  the 
mother  and  sister,  these  occuring  several  times 
a  week. 

Case  3. — A  woman  whose  father  went  abroad 
soon  after  her  birth,  and  whose  fixation  was 
first  of  all  upon  the  mother,  showed  a  strong 
fixation  on  the  mother  in  which  she  played  the 
masculine  part  in  the  unconscious.  At  the 
age  of  two  she  again  went  to  live  with  her  father 
and  developed  a  strong  fixation  upon  him  : 
but  she  was  still  playing  the  male  role,  and  this 
time  towards  her  father,  so  that  we  have  the 
curious  complex  of  a  woman's  fixation  upon  a 
man  being  of  a  homosexual  nature.*  This  is 
accounted  for  by  the  fact  already  stated  that 
everyone  is  bisexual,  and  that  the  actual  sexual 

•This  reversal  of  the  sexual  role  gives  us  an  inkling  into  the  form- 
ation nt  so  calle  1  "invert  homo-sexuality"  I  have  recently  had  a 
male  patient  who  showed  a  similar  complex 


92  PARENTAL    COMPLEXES 

feelings  in  the  reproductive  organs  of  a  woman 
are  masculine  in  character.  The  aggressive 
and  masculine  part  of  her  sexuality  was  already 
developed  somewhat  before  her  fixation  on  the 
father  was  formed  :  therefore  she  unconsciously 
acted  the  part  of  the  male.  She  afterwards 
married  a  man  who  had  many  attributes  similar 
to  those  of  her  father  and  towards  whom  che 
was  sexually  anaesthetic.  In  many  of  her  dreams 
she  showed  strong  homosexual  fixation  towards 
her  husband,  in  which  dreams  she  was  in  mascu- 
line clothes,  and  her  husband  was  dressed  as  a 
priest  in  long  robes,  etc.  For  obvious  reasons, 
I  do  not  feel  justified  in  giving  further  details 
of  this  interesting  case,  as  her  psychoneurosis 
was  of  a  peculiar  character,  and  the  patient 
would  readily  be  recognised  by  those  who  know 
her. 

Case  4. — A  woman  of  thirty-eight  had  a 
strong  fixation  on  the  father  to  whom  as  a  child 
she  used  to  go  with  all  her  little  troubles  and 
was  petted  and  spoiled  by  him.  Towards  her 
mother  she  felt  antagonism  :  as  a  child  she  felt 
that  her  mother  never  understood  her  and  that 
she  could  never  have  taken  her  troubles  to  her 
mother.  Her  father  died  when  she  was  sixteen 
years  old,  and  her  compulsion  neurosis  began 
shortly  afterwards.  In  her  early  adult  life  she 
was  in  love  with  several  men,  all  of  whom  were 


PARENTAL    COMPLEXES  93 

strangely  like  her  father  in  type.  Finally  she 
married  a  man  the  exact  reverse  of  her  father 
in  almost  every  respect  both  mentally  and 
physically,  showing  that  her  incest  complex  was 
too  near  consciousness  to  permit  her  to  marry 
the  father  type.  However,  in  spite  of  her 
having  married  the  reverse  of  the  father  type, 
in  her  unconscious  the  husband  still  represented 
the  father,  and  towards  him  she  had  sexual 
anaesthesia.  From  a  profound  sense  of  duty 
she  took  her  mother  to  live  with  her  always  (the 
result  of  the  feeling  of  guilty  jealousy  in  younger 
days)  and  she  was  continually  quarrelling  with  her 
mother,  who  tried  to  rule  the  household.  Love 
and  hate  were  always  at  war  with  one  another 
in  her  towards  her  mother  for  over  twenty  years, 
during  which  time  the  compulsion  neurosis 
persisted  with  fluctuations.  Amongst  other 
things  she  related  that  soon  after  her  father's 
death  her  mother  took  her  to  sleep  with  her 
in  the  same  bed,  and  during  the  night  wanted 
to  be  affectionate  with  her,  putting  her  arms 
round  her  and  so  forth.  The  girl,  however, 
had  strongly  resented  this,  and  could  not  bear 
her  mother  to  touch  her  and  used  to  make 
excuses  lor  lying  as  far  away  from  her  as  possible. 
As  the  analysis  progressed  the  patient  had 
frequent  dreams  of  incestuous  relations  with  the 
father  and  of  wishes  to  £ret  rid  of  the  mother. 


94  PARENTAL    COMPLEXES 

Even  twenty-two  3'ears  after  the  father's  death 
she  on  one  occasion  had  an  emotional 
breakdown  in  which  she  trembled  violently  and 
wept  simply  because  the  idea  had  occurred  to 
her  of  how  upset  her  father  would  be  did  he 
know  of  the  unhappiness  her  neurosis  had  caused. 
The  analysis  of  this  case  was  interesting  from 
another  point  of  view — namely,  that  the  handing 
on  of  psychoneuroses  in  families,  as  I  have 
previously  pointed  out,  is  not  so  much  a  question 
of  heredity  as  of  earfy  training  and  environment. 
In  this  case  the  mother  was  highly  neurotic 
and  had  a  mild  neurosis  somewhat  similar  to  the 
daughter's.  The  mother  herself  had  a  strong 
father  fixation  and  had  married  a  father  sub- 
stitute towards  whom  her  sexual  life  was  inade- 
quate, both  for  herself  and  for  her  husband. 
As  a  consequence  the  husband  projected  too 
great  a  proportion  of  affection  and  erotic 
feeling  upon  his  daughter,  who  in  his  unconscious 
to  a  great  extent  supplied  the  affection  he  felt 
was  lacking  towards  him  from  his  wife  :  the 
result  of  this  was  that  the  daughter  again  ob- 
tained a  father  complex  of  undue  proportions, 
and  unless  care  be  taken  or  an  analysis  is  made 
of  her  own  daughter,  still  a  small  child,  the 
neurosis  will  again  for  the  same  reason  be  handed 
on,  signs  of  it  being  already  apparent. 

One  or  two  instances  from  Brill  I  should  like 


Parental  complexes  05 

to  quote,  because  although  those  I  have  men- 
tioned are  to  the  analyst  perfectly  obvious  they 
have  not  the  outstanding  features  which  appeal 
to  the  beginner,  who  but  vaguely  realises  the 
facts. 

"  A  very  cultured  man  was  attracted  only  by 
very  stout  servants.  No  other  type  of  woman 
appealed  to  him.  Analysis  showed  that  his 
first  sexual  impulses  were  aroused  by  a  servant 
girl  of  that  type  who  took  the  place  of  his 
mother." 

"  A  refined  married  woman  of  twenty-four 
years  suffered  from  psychosexual  frigidity,  but 
was  sexually  excited  whenever  she  saw  a  lame 
man.  This  was  due  to  an  identification  with  her 
mother  who  had  an  illicit  love  affair  with  a 
man  when  the  daughter  was  three  or  four  years 
old.  Like  a  great  many  grown-ups  her  mother 
considered  her  little  girl  an  unthinking  being 
and  took  no  pains  to  conceal  anything  from  her. 
When  her  paramour  sustained  a  fracture  of  his 
leg  and  she  found  it  necessary  to  make  frequent 
calls  on  him  she  took  her  little  daughter  with  her 
so  as  to  avoid  gossip.  Although  what  she 
witnessed  apparently  made  no  impression  on 
her  at  the  time  it  nevertheless  acted  as  a  sexual 
trauma  and  formed  an  association  between  sew 
and  lameness.  This  was  also  determined  by  the 
fact  that  at  a  later  age  this  lame  man  took  the 


q6  parental  complexes 

place  of  her  own  father  by  marrying  her  widowed 
mother." 

"  A  young  married  woman,  dominated  by  a 
veritable  prostitution  complex,  carried  on  illicit 
relations  with  men  while  she  lived  with  her 
husband.  Psycho-analysis  showed  that  she  was 
an  only  daughter  and  although  her  father's 
pet  she  saw  very  little  of  him  during  her  early 
childhood  as  his  affairs  took  him  away  from 
home.  As  far  as  her  memory  reached  she 
recalled  witnessing  unholy  loves  between  her 
mother  and  "  strange  men."  She  herself  mar- 
ried a  man  who  not  only  belongs  to  the  same 
type  as  her  father,  but  who  even  follows  her 
father's  vocation.  She  thus  identified  herself 
with  her  mother  in  every  respect."  * 


*  Brill.     Psychanalysis  :  its  theory  and  practical  application. 


CHAPTER    VI 

Narcissism 

Narcissism  is  the  term  applied  to  that 
complex  whose  chief  attribute  consists  in 
self-worship  or  self-admiration.  We  are  not 
dealing  with  the  conscious  self-worship,  such  as 
may  be  seen  in  any  auto-sexual  exhibitionist, 
but  with  something  much  more  subtle,  much 
more  disguised,  and  primarily  at  any  rate  much 
less  erotic.  For  the  narcissistic  complex  takes 
its  early  foundations  in  the  pre-erotic  stages  of 
development,  as  we  shall  see  immediately  in 
considering    its    development. 

We  cannot  suppose  that  the  psychic  life  of 
the  child  commences  only  on  the  date  of  its 
birth.  Just  as  in  titero  its  heart  beats,  and  it 
may  move  its  little  limbs,  so  no  doubt  in  the 
unconscious  it  is  laying  the  foundation  of  future 
mentality,  and  registering  in  some  measure  the 
effect  of  various  stimuli  which  reach  it  in 
iitero,  e.g.,  movement   and  sound. 

Let  us  briefly  examine  its  position  here  and 
through  the  changes  that  precede  and  follow 
birth. 

Q7 


98  NARCISSISM 

Previous  to  birth,  had  it  any  conscious  imagin- 
ing at  all  it  would  naturally  suppose  itself  to  be 
the  only  individual  in  existence,  moreover  it 
would  be  an  all-powerful  individual.  It  does 
no  work,  it  makes  no  effort,  yet  it  is  kept  warm, 
it  is  fed,  it  is  sheltered  from  every  possible  ill. 
In  fact  all  its  "  life- desires  "  or  unconscious 
wishes  are  fulfilled  and  kept  in  a  condition  of 
continual  fulfilment. 

Now  let  us  see  what  happens  at  birth.  Its 
peaceful  omnipotence  is  rudely  disturbed  as  it  is 
forced  down  a  narrow  tunnel  and  out  into  the 
cold  world.  It  feels  its  first  pain.  It  takes 
its  first  breath,  it  has  to  make  its  first  effort  to 
adjust  itself  to  reality.  Rut  it  is  not  required  to 
make  a  very  great  effort.  Hardly  has  it  made 
its  first  few  cries,  than  it  finds  that  all  becomes 
well  again.  The  nurse  wraps  it  up  warmly 
and  places  it  again  near  the  mother.  Its  previous 
warm,  safe  position  is  returned  to  it  as  far  as 
possible. 

During  the  first  few  days  this  procedure  is 
repeated  with  slight  variations.  It  cries — it  is 
fed.  It  cries — and  it  is  rocked  gently  to  sleep 
(as  it  was  "  rocked  "  in  utero  by  the  mother's 
movements).  It  cries — and  a  crooning  song,  . 
a  lullaby  is  hummed  over  it  just  as  the  lullaby 
of  extra  uterine  sounds  must  have  reached  it 
previously.     It   curls   up  and  sleeps.     In  other 


NARCISSISM  00 

words  when  the  child  cries  it  finds  it  can  magical- 
ly and  at  once  satisfy  all  its  desires.  True  it  has 
to  cry,  but  otherwise  its  omnipotence  is  but 
little  disturbed.  All  the  world  that  it  knows 
moves  at  its  feeble  cry  to  give  it  satisfaction  and 
a  semblance  of  its  mother's  womb. 

This  goes  on  for  several  months  of  the  infant's 
life,  but  during  that  period  the  normal  child 
is  made  to  come  gradually  into  contact  with  the 
realities  of  life,  and  to  discover  that  all  things 
do  not  belong  to  it  nor  are  they  all  conducive  to 
its  pleasures.  Upon  the  age  to  which  this 
disillusionment  is  put  off  depends  largely  the 
future  powers  of  adaptation  of  the  child. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  new  born  infant  lives  in 
a  world  of  phantasy  in  which  the  relative  im- 
portance of  itself  and  of  things  outside  itself 
is  not  merely  distorted  but  is  entirely  absent, 
and  if  we  could  suppose  a  child  kept  artificially 
in  this  condition  to  adult  life,  every  wish  satisfied 
instantaneously,  every  force  it  knows  directed 
entirely  to  gratifying  its  immediate  desire, 
not  much  imagination  is  needed  to  understand 
how  absolutely  lost  this  omnipotent  creature 
would  be  on  suddenly  being  turned  into  the 
world  to  face  life  and  reality.  His  one  desire 
would  be  to  attempt  to  return  to  his  omnipotent 
state,  his  one  effort  to  keep  at  bay  reality  and 
turn  it  into  the  pleasant  phantasy  of  the  previous 


ioo  NARCISSISM 

twenty  years.  For  he  would  surely  before  his 
disillusionment  have  really  come  to  believe 
himself  omnipotent,  the  only  real  thing  in  a 
world  of  his  own  fashioning  and  dreaming. 

An  extreme  case  of  this  kind  is  of  course  an 
impossibility,  but  there  are  varying  degrees  in 
which  it  is  approached,  if  the  infant  be  allowed  to 
postpone  its  acquaintance  with  reality  too  long, 
it  becomes  "  fixed  "  in  a  more  or  less  degree  in  its 
condition  of  phantasy. 

It  is  then  said  to  have  a  strong  narcissistic 
fixation,  or  complex. 

In  all  persons  this  is  present  in  some  degree. 
Each  one  regards  himself  as  the  most  real  thing 
present,  though  but  few  carry  it  far  enough  to 
imagine  that  all  others  are  merely  part  of  a 
dream  in  which  the  dreamer  is  the  only  real 
figure,  as  the  Red  King,  in  "  Alice  through  the 
Looking  Glass  "  is  supposed  to  have  done,  when 
the  remark  is  made,  "  You're  only  a  sort  of 
thing  in  his  dream  !  If  that  there  King  was 
to  wake,  you'd  go  out — bang  !- — just  like  a 
candle." 

The  effects  of  the  narcissistic  complex  are 
however  very  apparent  in  many  people,  and 
have  much  to  do  with  many  of  the  ps3^choneu- 
rotic  conditions.  Among  the  simpler  and  more 
common  characteristics  caused  by  it  we  find 
impatience,  the  desire  to  accomplish  something 


NARCISSISM  io  i 

at  the  instant  of  the  conception  of  the  wish, 
even  at  the  expense  of  future  pain.  There  is  a 
lack  of  ability  to  count  the  cost,  for  in  the 
unconscious  that  individual  is  all-powerful  ar.d 
able  to  avert  further  unpleasant  consequences. 

While  at  first  narcissism  is  not  concerned  with 
erotic  emotions,  being  pre-infantile-erotic  in 
origin,  it  is  nevertheless  sooner  or  later  connected 
with  the  infantile  erotic  impulses  as  would 
naturally  be  expected,  but  it  must  not  be 
confused  with  auto-sexuality  as  is  so  often  the 
case.  One  of  the  erotic  channels  into  which 
narcissism  often  turns  is  homosexuality.  We 
have  discussed  this  hitherto  as  being  largely 
determined  by  parental  fixations,  it  is  time  now 
however,  to  modify  this  somewhat  ;  for  just 
as  the  narcissistic  person  unconsciously  regards 
himself  as  the  one  real  and  important  individual, 
so  he  fails  to  admire  anything  in  others  which 
is  not  like  himself,  and  he  or  she  will  be  likely 
to  have  strong  erotic  feelings  towards  some 
member  of  the  same  sex  having  outstanding 
characteristics  of  himself. 

If  it  does  not  proceed  to  this  extent,  the  love- 
object  on  a  hetero-s<-xual  plane  will  probably  be 
as  near  the  individual's  own  physical  or  mental 
type  as  possible.  Moreover,  the  narcissist  will 
have'  considerable  contempt  for  members  of  the 
opposite  sex,  as  a  rule,  and  tend  to  regard  them 

u 


102  NARCISSISM 

as  fundamentally  and  by  Nature's  design  below 
him  (or  her)  in  the  scale  of  creation. 

One  sees  therefore  that  narcissistic  and  paren- 
tal complexes  are  interdependent  forces  in  the 
formation  of  the  love-object  of  the  individual. 

The  narcissistic  individual  may  be  quite 
happy  and  contented  as  long  as  the  facts  which 
he  has  to  face  are  not  too  great  for  him  to 
overcome,  i.e.,  as  long  as  he  remains  in  undis- 
turbed possession  of  his  "  omnipotent  idea  ;  " 
and  since  he  almost  invariably  dismisses  future 
trouble  from  his  mind,  and  hence  is  able  to  deal 
with  it  when  it  arises  as  a  single  isolated  incident, 
he  is  often  able  to  achieve  great  things  in  a 
spasmodic  way,  and  to  live  as  an  optimist, 
for  he  does  not  grasp  any  picture  of  disaster — 
nothing  of  that  kind  is  real,  he  only  is  real. 
However,  should  his  power  be  insufficient  to 
overcome  the  difficulties  that  arise,  the  result 
may  be  unfortunate  for  him. 

In  the  first  place,  as  with  any  other  complex 
of  unbearable  ideas  which  is  repressed,  a  psycho- 
neurosis  may  result.  More  commonly  however 
a  regression,  or  attempt  to  get  back  to  childhood 
and  omnipotence  may  take  place  in  other  ways. 
He  may  become  a  chronic  alcoholic,  for  by  means 
of  alcohol  the  unpleasant  reality  is  made  to 
disappear  ;  he  again  becomes  omnipotent.  Un- 
der the  influence  of  alcohol  he  also  loses  his  sense 


NARCISSISM  103 

of  responsibility,  and  is  mentally  in  the  same 
irresponsible  condition  as  when  his  mother  nursed 
him  and  looked  after  him,  i.e.,  the  condition  of 
omnipotence  when  all  his  wishes  were  fulfilled.* 
Drug-taking  is  often  a  regression  due  to  the 
same  cause. 

On  the  other  hand  the  patient  may  seek  other 
modes  of  regression.  He  may  begin  to  cry  like 
a  baby,  for  as  a  child  he  found  his  tears  were 
omnipotent  in  overcoming  his  difficulties.  He 
may  seek  refuge  in  sleep  (pathological  bed- 
lying)  for  here  once  again  he  has  reached  the 
infantile  omnipotence.  He  may  fall  into  a 
rage  and  stamp  and  shout,  for  so  at  one  period 
by  means  of  such  magic  gestures  did  he  gain 
from  his  parents  obedience  to  his  omnipotent 
will.  Or  again  narcissists  may  become  merely 
miserable,  pessimistic  persons  who  complain  of 
everything  and  everyone,  and  are  quite  unable 
to  adjust  themselves  to  the  new  unpleasant 
reality,  so  unlike  their  previous  dreams  and 
ideals. 

Many  narcissistic  persons  complain  of  a  lack 
of  reality  in  life,  and  on  occasion  may  even  state 
that  objects  around  them  do  not  seem  real, 
and  that  they  can  sometimes  scarcely  bring 
themselves   to   consider   them   as   real. 

•Alcoholism  acts  as  a  means  ol  partially  destroying  repression  in 
many  other  cakes,  and  in  particular  in  the  comple\e-  ol  limn  bt\ualitj 
and  exhibitionism 


104  NARCISSISM 

It  will  be  seen  then  how  important  is  the 
behaviour  of  parents  towards  their  children 
in  the  first  fewnnonths  of  life.  Not  only  as 
regards  preventing  a  too-strong  erotic  fixation, 
but  from  the  point  of  view  also  of  preventing  a 
too-strong  narcissistic  fixation.  The  two  sets 
of  complexes  are  often  found  strongly  developed 
side  by  side  as  is  to  be  expected,  but  since 
narcisism  is  pre-sexual  and  considerably  earlier 
in  its  formation  than  the  (Edipus  complex, 
we  find  it  more  pronounced  in  certain  cases. 
For  instance  an  "  only  "  child  is  very  frequently 
not  only  narcissistic  but  has  a  very  strong  cedipus 
complex  ;  whereas  an  eldest  child  may  have  an 
equally  strong  narcissistic  complex  also  but  a 
more  normal  oedipus  complex,  since  though 
the  parents  were  his  willing  servants  when  he 
was  a  novelty,  yet  when  the  second  child  came 
eighteen  months  later,  they  were  educated  to  a 
more  sensible  regime,  and  moreover  since  there 
were  now  two  children  they  could  no  longer  devote 
the  same  time  and  worship  to  the  first.  It  is 
probable  that  the  old  idea  of  the  inheritance 
of  the  eldest  son,  and  of  his  other  rights  over  the 
remaining  members  of  the  family,  follow  from 
his  own  narcissistic  delusions  brought  about 
by  his  parents  and  afterwards  thrust  upon 
the  world   by  himself  from  time  immemorial. 


CHAPTER    VII 

Dreams 

A  dream  is  not  a  senseless  medley  of  thoughts, 
as  has  been  generally  supposed  ;  it  has  a  very 
perfect  mechanism  with  a  very  definite  meaning 
and  object.  So  much  is  this  the  case  that  the 
dream  becomes  an  invaluable  aid  in  psycho- 
analysis :  indeed,  without  the  dream,  in  most 
cases,  we  could  not  carry  out  a  psycho-analysis 
at  all  thoroughly. 

Although  Freud  recognises  only  one  type  of 
dream,  I  myself  definitely  recognise  three;  I  do  not 
hesitate  to  say,  however,  that  over  99  per  cent 
of  all  dreams  are  of  the  Freudian  type.  The 
important  (Freudian)  dream  I  will  discuss  last 
of  all,  as  practically  the  whole  of  this  chapter 
will  be  devoted  to  this  type.  The  other  two 
types,  though  rare,  appear  to  me  very  definite. 
They  scarcely  enter  into  psycho-analysis  :  but 
in  order  to  give  here  a  comprehensive  study  of 
dreams  as  they  have  come  under  my  notice 
these  types  must  have  their  place  in  this  chapter. 
I  will  deal  with  them  briefly,  then,  before  passing 
on  to  the  Freudian  dream. 


lob  DREAMS 

Type  i. — Of  this  type  is  the  dream  in  which 
some  past  event  of  a  horrible  nature  recurs 
positively  without  disguise  and  in  all  its  detail. 
This  may  or  may  not  cause  the  individual  to 
waken  according  to  the  amount  of  energy 
behind  its  content.  This  type  of  dream 
refers  always  to  incidents  in  which  the 
actual  preservation  of  life  itself  appeared 
threatened.  Here,  probably,  there  is  a  pent 
up  emotion  of  fear,  and  the  dream  is  possibly 
an  attempt  to  work  off  this  emotion  of 
fear  (abreaction).  In  ordinary  life  this  type 
of  dream  appears  but  rarely  ;  it  has,  however, 
come  to  my  notice  extremely  frequently  in 
soldiers  suffering  from  neuroses  following  ex- 
periences in  the  war.  These  dreams  will  be 
mentioned  later  in  connection  with  anxiety 
neuroses. 

Type  2.  — This  type  of  dream,  which  is  extreme- 
ly rare,  is  telepathic.  Here  the  dreamer  sees 
in  his  dream  some  actual  happening  which  is 
taking  place,  or  has  taken  place,  at  a  distance. 
I  have  recently  investigated  several  instances 
of  this  which  seem  to  leave  the  fact  beyond 
doubt.  However,  except  for  the  interest  con- 
nected with  this  type  of  dream  and  its  possibili- 
ties, we  shall  find  no  useful  purpose  served  by  a 
study  of  it  here,  and  we  shall  let  this  brief 
mention  of  it  suffice  for  the  present. 


DREAMS  107 

Type  3.  —In  order  to  make  clear  the  import- 
ance of  this  third  and  usual  type  of  dream  we 
must  again  refer  at  some  length  to  our  constant 
habit  of  repression.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  from  childhood  upwards  social  and  ethical 
conditions  have  been  forcing  us  to  repress  the 
majority  of  our  primitive  desires  ;  and  this  by 
no  means  refers  only  to  erotic  desires.  The 
child  sees  a  kitten  in  a  neighbour's  house— he 
immediately  desires  to  possess  it  ;  he  sees  cakes 
and  chocolates  on  the  table,  and  endeavours 
at  once  to  make  them  his  own.  In  early  infancy 
there  is  no  instinct  of  repression  ;  the  infant's 
mind  is  absorbed  by  a  variety  of  wishes,  and 
he  attempts  to  gratify  them  all  at  once.  Now 
if  each  child  were  not  trained  to  repress  desires 
of  this  kind,  life  would  be  intolerable  for  all. 
No  society,  even  of  the  most  barbaric  and 
primitive  form,  could  exist.  We  should  be 
attempting  to  possess  ourselves  of  other  people's 
property,  wives  and  so  forth.  Consequently, 
unless  we  lived  absolutely  alone  and  at  war 
with  the  rest  of  mankind,  existence  would  be 
impossible.  Hence,  very  rightly,  we  must  from 
childhood  upwards  repress  our  insatiable  de- 
sires. If  one  stops  to  consider  them  for  a 
moment  it  will  be  seen  that  though  our  desires 
are  manifold  it  is  a  fact  that  few  of  thou  are  ever 
attained. 


io8  DREAMS 

Let  us  now  see  what  happens  to  the  child 
when  repression  first  begins  to  take  place.  If 
he  cannot  have  a  real  pony  he  contents  himself 
with  a  rocking  horse  ;  failing  this,  he  will  amuse 
himself  by  tying  toy  reins  to  another  child  and 
imagining  that  the  other  child  is  the  pony  ; 
failing  this  again,  he  will  sit  in  a  chair  and 
vividly  imagine  the  delights  of  driving  a  horse — 
he  will  see  himself  manipulating  a  coach  and  four 
or  careering  over  desolate  mountains  on  a  fiery 
untamed  steed  :  in  other  words,  he  obtains 
satisfaction  of  his  desire  by  means  of  a  day  dream 
or  phantasy.  This  process  goes  on  to  a  certain 
extent  throughout  the  whole  life  of  each  indi- 
vidual, but  as  we  grow  older  so  do  we  generally 
gain  satisfaction  of  our  desire,  not  by  a  day 
dream  but  by  turning  the  energy  of  the  desire 
into  another  channel,  through  which  it  may  flow 
to  more  advantage,  i.e.,  we  sublimate  the  energy 
into  something  which  is  legitimate  and  possible, 
and  instead  of  dreaming  of  those  things  which 
are  unattainable  and  trying  to  gain  satisfaction 
from  a  day  dream  we  learn  to  face  and  to  deal 
with  facts. 

Nevertheless,  as  we  said  before,  in  dealing 
with  erotic  desires  the  whole  of  our  energy  is 
never  completely  sublimated.  There  is  always 
an  unsatisfied  repression  striving  for  expression 
from  the  unconscious  mind.     Moreover,  even  in 


DREAMS  loQ 

dealing  with  facts  which  are  attainable,  there  is 
generally  at  the  end  of  each  day  some  un- 
accomplished or  partially  accomplished  fact 
which  still  engrosses  our  conscious  mind.  We 
shall  find  that  the  ordinary  dream  weaves 
together  the  unaccomplished  fact  (legitimate 
desire)  and  the  unsublimated  wishes  (repressed 
desires)  and  that  these  together  form  the  dream. 
We  may  formulate  the  main  outlines  of  the 
dream,  which  wc  shall  endeavour  to  illustrate 
later,  as  follows  : 

istly. — It  tends  to  preserve  sleep  by  carrying 
on  everyday  conflicts  of  a  disturbing 
nature  under  some  form  of  disguise, 
i.e.,  it  prevents  us  from  consciously 
considering  our  daily  problems. 
indly. — It  serves  as  a  means  of  obtaining  the 

fulfilment  of  unattainable  wishes. 
ydly. — If  such  wishes  are  of  a  nature  foreign 
or  loathsome  to  the  conscious  mind,  it 
so  disguises  them  as  to  prevent  them 
from    becoming    conscious,    and    here 
again  tends  to  preserve  sleep. 
When  the  dream  is   so  constructed  that  it  is 
unable    to   confuse    and    bear    along    the    daily 
problem  or  to  disguise  the  repressed  and  un- 
bearable  wishes   of   the   unconscious,    then    the 
dreamer  finds  the  dream  inacceptable  and  too 
vivid  and  wakes  up. 


no  DREAMS 

In  the  infant  the  dream  of  the  night  is  very 
similar  to  the  day  dream.  It  has  not  yet  learnt 
to  repress,  nor  has  it  yet  developed  its  full 
primitive  sexuality  in  an  acceptable  condition  ; 
therefore  we  find  but  few  disguised  dreams. 
Freud  has  divided  the  development  of  sexuality 
into  three  main  stages.  Firstly,  the  primitive 
forms  of  energy,  that  is,  the  sexual  impulses. 
This  development  takes  place  prior  to  the  age 
of  four  years,  and  may  often  result  in  actual 
masturbatory  acts  considerably  prior  to  this  age. 
The  second  period,  which  he  designates  as  the 
latent  period  is  from  about  the  age  of  four  to  the 
age  of  eleven  or  thereabouts.  During  this 
period,  although  the  sexual  impulses  are  each 
developing,  enormous  repression  is  enforced  by 
ethical  and  social  conditions,  and  such  pheno- 
mena as  infantile  masturbation,  and  so  forth,  are 
generally  repressed.  At  or  about  the  age  of 
eleven  a  third  stage  begins,  when,  owing  to  the 
steady  unconscious  development  of  the  sexual 
impulses,  the  repression  tends  to  break  down, 
and  the  sexual  aim  (i.e.,  auto-,  homo-,  or  hetero- 
sexuality)  becomes  more  clearly  differentiated, 
though  differentiation  is  not  complete  until 
puberty. 

These  three  periods  correspond  with  three 
definite  types  of  dream.  The  first  period,  in 
which  there  is  no  repression,  gives  a  type  of 


DREAMS  in 

dream  which  merely  discloses  in  an  undisguised 
manner  the  unfulfilled  wishes  of  the  individual. 
The  second  period  gives  us  a  certain  number  of 
similar  dreams,  with  others  in  which  repressed 
erotic  impulses  occur,  but  in  a  more  and  more 
disguised  form  as  the  age  advances.  The  third 
gives  us  dreams  in  which  but  few  unfulfilled 
legitimate  wishes  arc  recognisable,  and  in  which 
both  repressed  erotic  impulses  and  erotic  aims 
appear  in  the  form  of  fulfilled  wishes  disguised 
so  as  not  to  shock  the  conscious  judgment,  the 
disguise  being  in  proportion  to  the  amount  of 
repression.  Unfulfilled  desires,  not  of  an  erotic 
nature  yet  unpleasant  to  the  conscious 
acceptance  of  things,  also  appear  in  a  disguised 
form. 

This  then  is  the  type  of  dream  which  we  meet 
with  in  the  ordinary  individual  every  night,  and 
with  which  we  have  to  deal  in  psycho-analysis. 
Further,  we  have  to  assume  for  the  purpose  of 
gathering  some  idea  of  what  takes  place  in  the 
transformation  of  dreams  that  there  is  some 
intellectuality  capable  even  in  our  sleep  of 
recognising  what  would  be  unpleasant  to  our 
conscious  mind.  This  is  brought  about  by  what 
may  be  termed  t  ho  censor  who  may 
be  regarded  as  standing  between  the  conscious 
and  the  unconscious  mind,  and  who  so  disguises 
the  content  of  the  dream  that   the  accomplish- 


112  DREAMS 

ment  of  infantile  wishes  is  quite  unrecognisable 
to  the  ordinary  conscious  mind.     If  this  were 
not    the    case,    the    following    would    happen  : 
when  we  slept  and  our  primitive  unconscious 
mind  with  its  perverse  erotic  wishes   was   no 
longer    controlled    and    subordinated    by    our 
conscious  mind,  then  our  unconscious  and  brutal 
instincts   would   obtain   their   gratification   un- 
disguised.    The  horror  of  these  primitive  wishes 
would  be  so  great  that  the  dreamer  would  awake 
frightened  and  disgusted,  and  it  is  only  therefore 
by  very  careful  disguise  of  the  content  of  the 
dream  that  this  horror  is  kept  from  conscious- 
ness, and  incidentally,  the  sleep  of  the  individual 
preserved.     Of  the  exact  place  or  state  of  this 
intellectuality  we  have  not  the  remotest  concep- 
tion, but  we  are  obliged  to  assume  that  it  is  there 
because  of  the  obvious  work  that  is  performed 
in  the  dream,  in  the  neurosis,  and  in  the  dis- 
placement of  sexuality  in  everyday  life  ;    and 
we   conveniently   term    this   intellectuality   the 
"  censor  "   of   the   unconscious,  regarding  it  as 
having  a  distinct  individuality  for  the  purpose 
of  gaining  a  clearer  conception  of  its  work. 

The  dream  is  very  similar  to  a  cartoon  in  the 
newspaper.  A  great  statesman  may  one  day 
be  represented  as  a  crowing  cock,  on  another 
day  as  a  rabbit,  and  on  yet  a  third  day  as  some 
inanimate  object  in  the  cartoon.     In  the  same 


DREAMS  113 

way  in  the  dream  the  repressed  material  is  dis- 
guised by  various  commonplace  objects  and 
happenings.  Just  as  in  the  cartoon  there 
is  no  absolute  and  finite  standard  of 
symbolism,  so  it  is  in  the  dream :  the 
censor  selects  any  odd  material — a  portion 
of  which  at  any  rate  invariably  comes  from  the 
happenings  of  the  previous  twenty-four  hours, 
material  which  has  not  been  thoroughly  realised 
consciously — as  the  paint  wherewith  to  colour 
his  canvas.  If  blue  is  lacking  to  paint  the  sky 
in  a  Mediterranean  scene  he  naively  takes 
copper  and  lays  the  scene  in  the  West  Indies. 
The  underlying  plot,  however,  is  in  either  case 
produced  with  fidelity. 

But  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  emotions 
felt  in  a  dream  do  not  always  correspond  with  the 
actual  happenings  in  the  dream,  but  with  the  ideas 
hidden  behind  the  dream.  Thus  one  may  fall  off 
a  cliff  in  a  dream  without  experiencing  any  fear, 
because  the  symbolism  of  falling  off  a  cliff  in  that 
particular  dream  represents  nothing  of  a  fearful 
nature  ;  whereas  one  might  strike  a  match  in 
a  dream  and  have  intense  terror  from  apparently 
unexplained  reasons  the  real  reason,  however, 
being  that  the  terror  referred  not  to  the  striking 
of  the  match  but  to  the  idea  which  that  action 
disguised. 

Jung's  conception  of  the  work  of  dreams  is 


114  DREAMS 

slightly  different  and  involves  the  idea  that  the 
dream  reinforces  conscience  and  so  strengthens 
one  against  the  infantile  wishes  which  are 
expressed  therein  ;  in  other  words,  while  Freud 
looks  upon  the  dream  as  determined  entirely  by 
something  which  has  gone  before,  Jung  con- 
siders that  it  is  the  conscience  and  that  which  is 
coming  after  or  raising  the  individual  to  a  higher 
ideal  which  influences  the  dream.  He  has 
adduced  no  proof,  whereas  Freud  has  adduced 
proof.  Nevertheless,  Jung  may  also  be  right, 
the  dream  may  also  subserve  other  purposes 
simultaneously,  for  there  is  no  evidence  against 
his  theory.  I  am  personally  inclined  to  a  third 
and  more  or  less  intermediate  idea  :  my  own 
conception  of  dreams  embraces  Freud's  work 
entirety,  but  also  adds  that,  as  well  as  a  primitive 
infantile  wish  the  sublimation  thereof  is  ex- 
pressed and  attained  ;  and  that  that  sublima- 
tion, even  if  never  repeated  in  exactly  the  same 
disguise,  may,  like  other  sublimations,  become  a 
habit  fixed  in  the  unconscious.  In  other  words, 
there  are  at  least  two  interpretations  to  many 
dreams — one  expressing  the  primitive  wish  and 
the  other  the  wish  in  a  sublimated  and  higher 
form.  We  have  apparently  an  unconscious 
instinct  endeavouring  constantly  to  guide  us  by 
sublimating  our  primitive  energ\7  to  a  higher 
type,  and  we  must  make  a  very  clear  distinction 


DREAMS  115 

between  a  sublimation  and  a  displacement.  For 
instance,  suppose  that  a  woman  dreams  that 
she  is  most  wonderfully  clothed,  or  even  that 
she  is  walking  the  streets  in  nothing  but  her 
stockings.  In  either  case  we  may  have  the 
primitive  infantile  exhibition  wish.  But  sup- 
posing that  in  addition  to  being  most  wonderfully 
clothed  she  dreams  that  she  has  a  halo  on  her 
head  and  a  harp  in  her  hands,  we  might  be 
justified  in  assuming  that  we  were  here  dealing 
with  some  type  of  sublimation  in  which  a  high 
moral  rather  than  a  high  physical  standard  were 
the  wish  expressed.  As  a  matter  of  fact  we 
should  find  on  analysis  of  this  dream  that  both 
were  expressed,  but  it  would  be  obvious 
that  moral  sublimation  is  present  as  well 
as  mere  sexual  displacement.  Displacement 
is  the  earliest  and  crudest  form  of  the 
struggle  of  the  mind  for  a  higher  outlet, 
sublimation  being  a  later  and  higher  form. 
It  is  not  my  intention  in  this  chapter  to  express 
an  opinion  of  the  origin  of  this  tendency  to  the 
higher  forms  of  sublimation. 

Not  all  dreams  nor  all  dreamers  show  subli- 
mation in  the  dream  work  ;  it  is  present  in  very 
varying  amounts.  Hut  practically  all  dreams 
express  the  lower  and  primitive  wishes,  displaee 
them  and  fulfil  them,  and  a  very  large  proportion 
show  the  added  sublimation.      The  sublimation, 


n6  DREAMS 

moreover,  frequently  increases  with  the  increased 
age  of  the  individual. 

A  non-sexual  but  repressed  wish  is  often 
expressed  in  the  dream  as  well  as  the  erotic  wish 
above  referred  to.  And  since  the  same  material 
is  thus  made  to  represent  two  distinct  ideas,  the 
dream  may  be  spoken  of  as  over-determined. 

I  will  now  quote  one  or  two  typical  dreams, 
the  meaning  of  which  has  been  elicited  from  the 
patient  under  analysis  by  what  is  termed  "  free 
association."  In  this  method  the  patient's 
attention  is  directed  to  any  word  or  sentence 
in  the  dream,  and  he  is  told  to  give  all  the 
thoughts  and  ideas  in  connection  with  this  word 
or  sentence  just  as  they  come  into  his  mind 
without  criticism  and  without  repression.  The 
thoughts  may  be  vulgar,  personal,  trivial,  or 
they  may  be  connected  with  other  people's 
private  affairs.  Whatever  they  are,  the  patient 
must  express  them  ;  by  this  means  we  discover 
what  lies  behind,  and  what  is  connected  un- 
consciously with  any  of  the  dream  images. 
This  will  be  much  more  fully  explained  when 
we  consider  the  technique  of  psycho-analysis 
itself  at  a  later  stage.  Let  us  commence  our 
elucidation  by  means  of  an  illustration  outside 
dreams. 

We  will  suppose  that  an  artist  has  drawn  a 
cartoon  (  —  a  dream)  in  which  he  has  represented 


DREAMS  117 

a  cock  with  a  large  bent  beak  crowing  on  a 

rock  surrounded  by  the  sea.     The  artist  drew 

this  cartoon  years  ago,  and  has  quite  forgotten 

what  it  represented  or  when  he  drew  it.     We 

proceed   somewhat   as   follows  :     The   A  nalyst : 

"  Give  associations  to  the  cock  you  see  in  the 

cartoon."     The  Artist :   "  A  cocky  fellow  ;   cock 

of  the  roost  ;    monarch  of  all  he  surveys.  .  .  . 

a  statesman  who  has  got  his  own  way  comes 

into  my  mind.  ...     He  has  got  rather  a  beaky 

nose  ....     Gladstone  comes  into  my  mind. 

Analyst  :     "  Now    associations    to    the    rock." 

Artist :   "A  useless  sterile  bit  of  land,  not  much 

to  crow  about  ;    an  island  in  the  sea.   ...     I 

remember   now  !     Ireland,    of    course  !     It    was 

drawn  on  an  occasion  when  Mr.  Gladstone  had 

made  a  triumphant  speech  on  Home  Rule,  and 

I,   not   being  much  of  a   politician,   thought   it 

'  Much    ado    about    nothing.'     I    thought    that 

it    did   not   really   matter   whether   Home   Rule 

were   granted   or   not,   considering   that   in   any 

ease  Ireland,  a  thinly  populated  island  cost  us 

much  more  than  she  ever  paid.      It  seemed  to 

me  a  sterile  rock  so  far  as  we  were  concerned." 

The  analysis,  then,  has  brought  from  the 
unconscious  to  the  conscious  mind  of  the  artist 
the  original  meaning  of  his  cartoon. 

Now  supposing  that  instead  of  a  cartoon  by 
an   artist   this  same  scene   had   been   described 


n8  DREAMS 

as  a  dream  by  Mr.  Gladstone  himself.  The 
analysis  might  then  by  a  similar  process  of  free 
association  have  revealed  the  wish  of  Mr.  Glad- 
stone that  his  speech  on  Home  Rule  should 
result  in  his  being  "  cock  of  the  roost,"  or  "  mon- 
arch of  all  he  surveyed,"  with  reference  to  the 
conflict  then  being  waged  concerning  Ireland. 
Moreover,  the  dream  would  not  only  have 
expressed  his  wish,  it  would  have  fulfilled  it  ; 
for  in  the  dream  he  had  taken  up  a  commanding 
position  on  the  rock,  and  this  rock  symbolised 
Ireland. 

Now  few  dreams  are  so  simple  as  the  above 
example,  for  the  simple  reason  that  in  order 
to  disguise  the  feelings  (especially  when  primi- 
tive erotic  impulses  are  repressed,  or  when  more 
than  one  wish  is  to  be  represented  by  the 
symbol,  various  artifices  are  resorted  to 
by  the  censor.  Moreover,  it  must  be  re- 
membered that  the  censor  is  apparently  obliged 
to  make  use  of  at  least  some  material  from  the 
events  of  the  twenty-four  hours  immediately 
preceding  the  dream.  This  will  form  the  sub- 
ject of  his  picture,  but  in  order  to  disguise  still 
more  carefully  the  underlying  feeling,  he  makes 
use  of  those  further  artifices  : 

i.  Displacement.— P>y  this  we  mean  that  the 
hidden  content  of  the  dream  instead  of  being 
represented    by    the    most    prominent    features 


DREAMS  119 

of  the  dream  may  be  displaced  and  occupy  a 
trivial  position  in  the  background.  One's  dream 
may  consist  apparently  of  a  battleship  ploughing 
the  ocean,  but  the  essential  portion  may  lie 
behind  a  broken  rope  hanging  over  the  side 
or  a  splash  of  rust  upon  one  of  the  funnels. 

2.  Condensation. — A  large  number  of  factors 
bearing  upon  the  wish  expressed  in  the  dream 
may  be  represented  by  one  factor  in  the  obvious 
content.  Thus  :  if  we  wish  to  express  envy 
towards  a  brother,  a  commercial  rival,  and  a 
hypothetical  devil  simultaneously,  we  are  quite 
likely  to  produce  a  composite  figure  of  all  three 
in  one  person,  with  the  eyes  of  the  brother,  the 
moustache  of  the  commercial  rival  and  a  lucifer 
match  in  his  hands  to  indicate  the  devil,  the 
result  being  quite  unrecognisable  to  our  con- 
scious self,  but  which  on  analysis  would  be 
found  to  contain  a  large  number  of  condensed 
ideas.  Not  only  may  personalities  be  com- 
bined, but  a  large  series  of  experiences  may  be 
heaped  together  so  as  to  reinforce  one  another, 
and  be  reinforced  by  only  one  simple  image. 

An  excellent  example  of  a  dream  containing 
much  condensation  is  given  by  Ferenczi.*  He 
says  :  '  I  was  once  called  upon  to  analyse  the 
very  short  dream  of  a  woman  ;  in  it  she  had 
wrung  the  neck  of  a  little,  barking,  white  dog. 

*  •  Contributions  to  Psycho- Analysis,"  pp.   101-102, 


120  DREAMS 

She  was  very  much  astonished  that  she,  *  who 
could  not  hurt  a  fly,'  could  dream  such  a  cruel 
dream,  and  she  did  not  remember  having 
dreamt  one  like  it  before.  She  admitted  that, 
being  very  fond  of  cooking,  she  had  many  times 
killed  pigeons  and  fowls  with  her  own  hand. 
Then  it  occurred  to  her  that  she  had  wrung  the 
neck  of  the  little  dog  in  the  dream  in  exactly 
the  same  way  as  she  was  accustomed  to  do 
with  the  pigeons  in  order  to  cause  them  less 
pain.  The  thoughts  and  associations  that  fol- 
lowed had  to  do  with  pictures  and  stories  of 
executions,  and  especially  with  the  thought 
that  the  executioner,  when  he  has  fastened  the 
cord  about  the  criminal's  neck,  arranges  it  so 
as  to  give  the  neck  a  twist,  and  thus  hasten 
death.  Asked  against  whom  she  felt  strong 
enmity  at  the  present  time,  she  named  a  sister- 
in-law,  and  related  at  length  her  bad  qualities 
and  malicious  deeds,  with  which  she  had  dis- 
turbed the  family  harmony,  before  so  beautiful, 
after  insinuating  herself  like  a  tame  pigeon  into 
the  favour  of  her  subsequent  husband.  Not 
long  before  a  violent  scene  had  taken  place 
between  her  and  the  patient,  which  ended  by 
the  latter  showing  her  the  door  with  the  words  : 
'  Get  out  ;  I  cannot  endure  a  biting  dog  in  my 
house.'  Now  it  was  clear  whom  the  little 
white    dog    represented,    and    whose    neck    she 


DREAMS  121 

was  wringing  in  the  dream.  The  sister-in-law 
is  also  a  small  person,  with  a  remarkably  white 
complexion.  This  little  analysis  enables  us 
to  observe  the  dream  in  its  displacing  and  thus 
disguising  activity.  Without  doubt  the  dream 
used  the  comparison  with  the  biting  dog  instead 
of  the  real  object  of  the  execution  fancy  (the 
sister-in-law)  smuggling  in  a  little  white  dog 
just  as  the  angel  in  the  Biblical  story  gave 
Abraham  at  the  last  moment  a  ram  to  slaughter, 
when  he  was  preparing  to  slaughter  his  son. 
In  order  to  accomplish  this  the  dream  had  to 
heap  up  memory  images  of  the  killing  of  animals 
until  by  means  of  their  condensed  psychical 
energy  the  image  of  the  hated  person  paled, 
and  the  scene  of  the  manifest  dream  was  shifted 
to  the  animal  kingdom.  Memory  images  of 
human  executions  served  as  a  connecting  link 
for  this  displacement. 

'  This  example  gives  me  the  opportunity  to 
repeat  that,  with  few  exceptions,  the  conscious 
dream  content  is  not  the  true  reproduction  of 
our  dream-thoughts,  but  only  a  displaced, 
wrongly  accented  caricature,  the  original  of 
which  can  be  reconstructed  only  by  the  help 
of  psycho-analysis." 

3.  Reduplication. — By  this  we  mean  that 
certain  points  in  the  dream,  or  even  complete 
wishes,  may  be  represented  by  more  than  one 


122  DREAMS 

figure  or  symbol.  Suppose,  for  instance,  in 
the  hypothetical  dream  above  quoted  con- 
cerning Mr.  Gladstone  reduplication  had  been 
present  ;  we  might  have  added  to  the  cock 
crowing  an  enormous  wave  in  the  background 
overwhelming  a  boat,  with  a  man  in  it  whose 
face  was  similar  to  that  of  Salisbury,  Gladstone's 
chief  political  opponent  at  that  time,  or  there 
might  have  been  a  composite  picture  of  all  his 
opponents  being  overwhelmed  by  this  wave. 
Here  we  should  have  had  his  triumph  expressed 
twice  in  the  same  picture,  and,  from  the  point 
of  view  of  a  cartoonist,  the  second  image  would 
be  superfluous.  The  wave  would  represent 
Mr.  Gladstone  in  the  same  way  as  the  cock 
does,  so  that  the  factors  of  the  case  would  have 
been  present  twice  over. 

"If"  and  "an,"  "either"  and  "or"  in  a 
dream  are  expressed  by  simultaneous  contrasts 
or  consecutive  happenings  in  time  and  space. 
The  words  themselves  are  absent  from  the 
picture. 

It  has  been  argued  by  many  patients  that 
the  dreams  they  experience  are  occasionally 
diametrically  opposed  to  their  wishes,  but  even 
here  it  can  be  shown  that  it  is  not  the  expressed 
wish  which  counts  ;  rather  it  is  one  implied  by 
that  apparent  wish. 

To   illustrate   this    I    cannot   do   better   than 


DREAMS  123 

quote  an  excellent  example  which  Brill  has 
published.* 

Relating  the  first  dream  he  says  :  "  Recently 
a  patient  came  to  me  and  disputed  the  theory 
of  wish  fulfilment.  To  prove  his  assertion  he 
stated  that  the  night  before  he  had  dreamed  that 
he  had  syphilis.  I  could  readily  prove  that 
the  dream  showed  the  realisation  of  a  wish. 
This  patient  was  being  treated  by  me  for  psychic 
sexual  impotence,  and  the  day  before  his  dream 
we  discussed  promiscuous  sexuality.  I  called 
his  attention  to  the  dangers  of  infection,  and 
spoke  about  proper  precautions,  etc.  He  grimly 
remarked  :  '  There  is  no  danger  of  my  becoming 
infected.  I  could  not  if  I  tried.'  The  dream 
realises  his  wish  that  he  can  become  infected  ; 
meaning  that  he  is  no  longer  sexually  impotent. 
(Obviously  the  dream  is  not  the  wish  that  he 
should  become  infected,  but  that  he  should  be 
in  a  position  to  be  able  to  become  infected)." 

Patients  frequently  dream  of  the  death  of 
a  parent  or  friend,  and  state  that  they  cannot 
see  how  this  can  be  a  wish  fulfilment.  It  is 
easy  to  demonstrate  this  to  be  the  case,  however. 
In  dreams  one  frequently  reverts  to  infantile 
modes  of  expression,  indeed,  some  suppressed 
infantile  material  is  practically  always  present 
in   them.     Now   in   infancy   a  child  will   often 

*  Psycho- Analysis  :      Its  Theory  and  Practical  Application. — Prill. 


124  DREAMS 

exclaim  :  '  I  wish  you  were  dead  !  '  But  he 
has  no  real  conception  of  death  ;  he  merely 
means  :  'I  wish  you  were  out  of  the  way,  you 
are  interfering  with  my  desires."  And  this  is 
all  that  a  death  wish  in  a  dream  means  on  most 
occasions. 

Dreams  containing  repressed  infantile  erotic 
wishes  whose  complexes  have  been  "  touched  " 
during  the  day  are  extremely  common  in  normal 
persons.  For  instance,  I  have  frequently 
noticed  that  if  a  person  has  haemorrhoids  which 
suddenly  irritate  him  the  anal-erotic  repressed 
impulse  is  touched,  and  the  dream  of  the  night 
will  fulfil  the  wish  connected  with  the  anal- 
erotic  impulse — quite  disguised  in  as  far  as 
the  patient  is  concerned,  but  often  very  obvious 
to  the  analyst  even  without  analysis;  and  so  with 
other  repressed  erotic  impulses,  which  some 
trivial  incident  of  the  day  has  tended  to  bring 
nearer  to  consciousness. 

A  fact  of  considerable  importance  to  the 
psycho-analyst  is  that  dreams  of  the  same 
night  generally  refer  to  the  same  complexes 
and  that  the  second  or  third  dreams  are  less 
disguised  than  the  first,  as  though  in  repetition 
of  the  work  the  censor  became  careless  and 
lost  energy  and  hence  was  less  able  to  disguise 
the  wish  effectively.  An  example  of  this  is  to 
be    seen    in    the    two    following    dreams    which 


f)R£AMS  u% 

occurred  in  the  same  night  to  a  woman  patient, 
one  of  whose  symptoms  was  psycho-sexual 
impotence. 

In  the  first  dream  she  was  riding  a  galloping 
horse  ;  at  first  she  recalled  no  more,  except 
that  in  the  dream  she  felt  very  nervous.  Later 
she  added  that  she  believed  the  horse  had  a 
short  grey  beard. 

In  the  second  dream  she  was  mounting  the 
stairs  of  a  high  tower  with  her  father  ;  it  was 
very  difficult  and  her  father  had  to  help  her  ; 
at  the  top  of  the  tower  the}-  both  fell  exhausted 
together. 

The  meaning  of  these  two  dreams  was  very 
obvious  to  me  at  once,  but  I  naturally  did  not 
tell  her  so.  Associations  which  she  gave  led 
to  the  following  interpretation  (which  was  the 
one  I  had  already  formed  in  my  mind).  The 
horse's  beard  resembled  her  father's  beard. 
Her  father  had  taught  her  to  ride  as  a  girl,  and 
was  very  fond  of  horses  of  which  he  always  had 
several.  She  had  ridden  with  her  father  on 
the  previous  day  (he  was  staying  with  her 
husband  and  herself).  She  said  then  that  her 
father  was  a  very  "  horsey  "  man  and  she  then 
identified  her  father  with  the  horse.     She  was 

riding  her  father  "  —an  obvious  disguise  for 
an    incestuous   erotic   wish   towards   her   father. 

The  second  dream  was  at  once  quite  obvious 


126  DREAMS 

to  her  then.  In  this  dream  the  father  was  not 
even  disguised  ;  she  was  mounting  the  stairs 
with  him  and  they  fell  exhausted  together — 
an  obvious  symbol  of  the  same  erotic  wish  in 
the  unconscious. 

These  dreams  also  show  two  rather  typical 
symbols,  riding  and  mounting  stairs,  and  many 
other  similar  acts  such  as  travelling  in  a  motor 
boat,  etc.,  which  entail  regular  rhythmic  motion, 
practically  always  represent  a  sexual  act.  And 
even  in  language  the  symbolism  has  been 
recognised,  for  the  words  "  riding,"  "  mount 
nig,"  etc.,  have  often  been  used  to  designate 
the  same  act. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  reason  of  this  patient's 
psycho-sexual  impotence  was  that  as  an  infant 
she  had  fallen  in  love  with  her  father  and  in 
her  unconscious  mind  had  remained  in  that 
condition  ever  since  and  could  not  pass  on  the 
erotic  energy  to  her  husband.  This,  however 
has  been  much  more  fully  discussed  in  the 
chapter  on  parental  complexes. 

There  is  of  course  no  fixed  symbolism  in 
dreams,  and  symbols  may  represent  one  thing 
one  day  and  another  the  next,  but  there  are 
certainly  several  more  or  less  typical  symbols 
which,  when  present  in  a  dream  generally 
represent  a  given  action  or  idea.  We  have  al- 
ready mentioned  riding  or  mounting.     Climbing 


DREAMS  127 

a  tree  would  be  equally  typical  of  the  same  act. 
Churches,  boxes,  etc.,  generally  represent  the 
female,  often  the  mother  idea,  while  elongated 
cylindrical  things  represent  as  a  rule  either  the 
male  reproductive  organs  or  more  rarely  the 
female  homologue  of  the  same.  Crossing  a 
river  or  ravine  generally  indicates  the  successful 
accomplishment  in  the  dream  of  overcoming 
some  difficulty  which  has  not  been  overcome 
in  the  waking  life,  and  so  forth.  There  is  no 
need,  however,  to  give  examples  of  these  dreams, 
as  sufficient  have  already  been  given  to  demon- 
strate how  dreams  are  formed,  and  their  means 
of  wish  fulfilment. 

SUMMARY 

1.  The  vast  majority  of  dreams  serve  two  pur- 

poses :  (a),  the  fulfilment  of  repressed  or 
unattaincd  wishes  ;  (b),  the  preservation 
of  sleep. 

2.  The  manifest  content  of  the  dream  is  formed 

from  any  material  that  lies  handy,  part 
of  which  comes  from  the  events  of  the 
previous  twenty-four  hours. 

3.  The  latent  content,   or  inner  meaning  of  the 

dream  is  discuised  by  symbol  ism  of  the 
manifest  content  so  as  to  be  unrecognisable 
to  the  dreamer. 


12$  DREAMS 

4.  Part   of  the   latent   content   always   refers   to 

infantile  repressions. 

5.  The  emotion  in  a  dream  has  reference  to  the 

latent  meaning   and   not  to   the   manifest 
content. 


CHAPTER    VIII 

The   Functional   Diseases 

Hysterias,  anxieties  and  many  other  con- 
ditions of  the  mind  follow  naturally  upon  our 
discussions  upon  dreams,  because  what  the 
dream  is  to  the  sleeper  the  nervous  disease  is 
to  the  waking  life  in  many  respects.  The 
nightmare  of  sleep  corresponds  on  the  whole 
to  the  anxiety  condition  of  the  waking  neurotic 
individual.  In  other  words,  the  neurotic  is 
living  in  a  kind  of  dream.  The  most  absurd 
dream  may  be  quite  real  during  sleep,  because 
it  is  split  off  from  our  conscious  experience. 
Thus  a  man  may  fall  off  a  cliff  300  feet  high  in 
a  dream  and  alight  comfortably  and  without 
any  sense  of  surprise  in  an  armchair  at  the 
bottom  of  the  cliff,  because  his  conscious  judg- 
ment about  falling  is  split  off  from  his  dream 
experience.  In  hysteria  a  similar  splitting  of 
consciousness  takes  place.  Our  study  of  dreams, 
then,  will  have  enabled  us  to  understand  much 
more  readily  our  functional  diseases.  They 
are  pathological  conditions  of  the  mind  in  which 
the  absurdity  of  the  situation  as  gauged  by  our 


130  THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES 

reasoning  faculties  is  largely  left  in  abeyance 
— not  by  any  deliberate  and  conscious  effort, 
but  for  the  simple  reason  that  our  identity  is 
split  into  two  or  more  portions,  a  gap  lying 
between  the  conscious  and  the  unconscious 
reasoning  and  conclusions,  and  this  gulf  remains 
quite  unbridgeable  until  analysed.  This  ex- 
planation applies  to  certain  forms  of  hysteria 
and  lunacy  :  it  does  not  apply  equally  to  all 
so-called  functional  diseases,  for  though  some 
of  the  functional  diseases  are  occasioned  by  a 
gap  or  a  splitting  off  of  consciousness  in  ideas 
(ideals,  memories,  conflicts),  others  are  the 
result  of  accumulated  emotions  attendant  upon 
these  ideas,  and  one  must  always  remember 
that  the  emotions  are  of  a  primary  nature  and 
occur  before  any  reasoning  is  applied  thereto. 
Thus  while  we  may  recognise  that  erotic 
emotions  connected  with  human  beings  follow 
upon  definite  ideas  of  beauty  or  other  attractions, 
in  our  primitive  ancestors  we  must  recognise 
emotions  as  something  felt  prior  to  deliberate 
or  reasoned  ideas.  One  cannot  imagine  that 
the  earthworm,  an  organism  without  eyes  and 
with  ganglia  representing  the  primitive  brain, 
has  any  particular  ideas  in  connection  with 
another  earthworm  ;  but  it  can  be  imagined 
that  it  has  a  compelling  energy  of  emotion — 
not  connected  with  definite  ideas — which  causes 


THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES  131 

it  to  come  into  contact  with  another  earthworm, 
to  desire  touch,  and  so  forth,  without  a  reasoned 
idea  lying  behind  as  motive.  There  is,  in  other 
words,  a  stage  in  development  in  which  emotions 
per  se  become  emotions  attached  to  a  mental 
picture  or    idea. 

We  must  therefore  divide  our  psychic  diseases 
into  two  classes  :  those  connected  with  ideas 
with  their  attendant  emotions,  and  those  chiefly 
concerned  with  emotions  themselves,  whether 
in  reality  they  have  ideas  attached  to  them 
or  not.  Broadly  speaking,  the  division  is  as 
follows  :  — 

1.  The  Psycho-Neuroses  :   These  are  neurotic 

conditions    following    repressed    ideas. 

2.  The  Actual  Neuroses:    Those  dependent 

upon    accumulated    emotions   whether 

ideas  are  there  in   a  subsidiary  form 

or  not. 

The  various  neuroses  have  been  classed  by 

different    writers    in    different    ways  ;     this    has 

been  further  complicated  by  the  fact  that  they 

apparently   overlap,    and   in    overlapping   form 

new  combinations,  which  by  superficial  observers 

have  been  classified  as  new  diseases.     Freud's 

classification  is  probably  the  most  correct,  and 

if  I  vary  this  slightly  it  is  in  order  to  simplify 

it   from  the  point   of  view  of  the  student,  and 

not   because   the   dogmatic   classification   which 


132  THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES 

I  give  is  by  any  means  final  in  its  conception. 
My  classification  therefore,  of  the  neuroses  is 
as  follows  : — 

i.     The   Psycho-Neuroses    (the    hysterias)  : — 

a.  Conversion  Hysteria. 

b.  Anxiety  Hysteria. 

c.  Compulsion    Hysteria    (compulsion 

neurosis). 

d.  Paranoid  Hysteria  (early  paranoia). 

e.  Dementia  Praecox  (certain  cases  of). 
2.     The   Actual  Neuroses  : — 

a.  Anxiety  Neurosis. 

b.  Neurasthenia. 

Here  one  must  state  that  in  spite  of  the 
separation  of  the  actual  neuroses  from  the 
psycho-neuroses  we  shall  find  later  on  that  they 
overlap,  for  the  anxiety  hysteria  and  the 
anxiety  neurosis  have  very  much  in  common. 
Indeed,  one  might  almost  state  that  the  anxiety 
neurosis  is  included  in  the  anxiety  hysterias  ; 
the  chief  difference  being  that  the  anxiety 
hysteria  has  at  its  base  a  repression  of  ideas 
together  with  a  certain  amount  of  actual  re- 
pression of  emotions,  whereas  in  the  anxiety 
neurosis  the  repressed  emotion  is  the  chief 
factor,  albeit  repressed  conflicting  ideas  are 
often  to  be  discovered. 

As  regards  neurasthenia  I  am  myself  rather 
doubtful  as  to  its  inclusion  as  a  purely  functional 


THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES  133 

disease,  and  I  shall  give  my  reasons  in  a  later 
paragraph.  In  the  meantime  it  has  so  often 
a  resemblance  to  and  a  mechanism  consistent 
with  these  neuroses  proper  that  rather  for 
convenience  sake  than  from  conviction  I  have 
included  it  in  this  category. 

1.  Psycho-Neuroses  (Hysterias) 
These  have  as  their  basis  repressed,  un- 
conscious ideas  and  conflicts  which  are  of  an 
unbearable  nature  to  the  individual,  and  which 
for  some  reason  are  in  danger  of  becoming 
conscious.  As  we  have  shown  in  a  previous 
chapter  erotic  energy  may  be  repressed  at  two 
totally  different  stages  :  firstly,  as  regards  the 
erotic  impulse  in  early  childhood  ;  secondly, 
as  regards  the  attainment  of  the  erotic  aim 
before,  at  or  after  puberty.  In  a  suitable 
individual,  if  the  repression  begins  to  fail,  if 
the  sublimation  be  not  good  enough,  and  if 
some  stimulus  tends  to  bring  to  consciousness 
the  repressed  material  (ideas,  ideals,  conflicts, 
etc.),  a  hysteria  may  result,  and  it  does  so  as  a 
further  means  of  defence  against  the  repression 
becoming  conscious.  It  is,  in  other  \v<;nls, 
the  last  line  of  defence.  The  original  repression 
may  date  from  early  childhood  :  a  series  of 
incidents  in  later  life  may  add  their  energy  to 
the  tendency  for  repression  to  become  conscious, 
but    the    power   of   repression    may    have   been 


134  ™E    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES 

sufficiently  strong  to  keep  the  whole  uncon- 
scious up  to  a  certain  period  :  the  individual 
during  that  period  of  his  life  may  have  remained 
normal — in  other  words,  the  defence  which 
the  censor  of  the  mind  exercised  against  the 
repressed  material  has  been  adequate  and  suc- 
cessful. At  last,  however,  some  new  conflict 
may  be  so  strong  as  to  render  further  successful 
defence  impossible,  unless  the  whole  of  the 
repressed  material  which  has  been  split  off  from 
normal  consciousness  can  obtain  an  outlet  for 
its  energy  in  some  manner  still  foreign  to  that 
consciousness.  What  actually  happens  is  that 
such  repressions  do  fail,  the  conflict  tends 
to  become  conscious,  an  attempt  is  made  to 
split  it  off  from  consciousness  and  to  divert  it 
into  another  channel,  and  hysteria  results — a 
defence  more  or  less  successful  in  preventing 
the  unbearable  ideas  coming  into  normal  con- 
sciousness. The  particular  form  the  hysteria 
will  take  is  determined  by  the  prevailing  idea 
in  the  ensuing  conflict  between  the  censor  and 
the  unconscious. 

a.  Conversion  Hysterias. — The  conflict  in  a 
conversion  hysteria  is  generally  between  a 
repressed  idea  (wish)  and  an  inhibition.  The 
inhibition  may  be  internal,  such  as  another  idea 
incompatible  with  the  first  one,  or  external 
enforced    by    environment    and    circumstance 


THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES  135 

The  name  arises  because  there  is  a  con- 
version (with  a  splitting  of  consciousness) 
of  the  unpleasant  idea  from  the  mental  to  the 
physical  plane.  Let  us  take  a  hypothetical 
example  :  we  will  suppose  an  individual  to 
have  repressed  successfully  a  mental  conflict 
with  its  many  added  stimuli  until  a  "  last 
straw  "  is  added  which  would  normally  bring 
the  whole  unbearable  idea  into  consciousness. 
Let  us  further  suppose  that  that  individual 
is  in  the  habit  of  using  a  phrase  in  very  common 
use  such  as,  "  I  feel  awfully  sick  about  it," 
referring  of  course  not  to  physical  sickness,  but 
to  an  attitude  of  mind.  The  unbearable  idea 
is  about  to  become  conscious,  and  the  phrase, 
too,  may  be  "  on  the  tip  of  his  tongue."  The 
result  is  that  a  further  temporary  repression 
from  consciousness  takes  place,  and  the  in- 
dividual turns  the  whole  of  his  mental  energy, 
which  is  making  him  "  awfully  sick  "  mentally 
into  the  physical  plane,  which  makes  him 
"  awfully  sick  "  physically.  He  actually  begins 
to  vomit  upon  the  slightest  provocation — has, 
in  fact,  acquired  hysterical  vomiting,  and  has  also 
succeeded  once  more  by  means  of  this  conversion 
in  defending  his  conscious  mind  against  -the 
underlying  unbearable  ideas  of  the  unconscious. 
To  quote  a  case  of  Brill's  :—  '  A  married 
woman     of     fortv-nine     wars      who     suffered 


136  THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES 

from  hysteria  for  more  than  twenty-two 
years  showed  as  one  of  her  symptoms  a  very 
painful  contracted  and  paralyzed  right  arm 
which  had  been  so  for  more  than  three  years. 
The  muscles  of  the  arm  and  shoulder  region 
were  completely  anaesthetic  and  deep  needle 
pricks  were  not  perceived,  but  the  slightest 
attempt  to  straighten  out  the  member  was 
most  painful.  Indeed  the  pain  was  the  chief 
symptom.  It  would  be  impossible  for  me  to 
give  here  the  full  analysis  of  the  condition.  I 
will  merely  mention  some  of  the  psychic  con- 
stellations. Due  to  a  number  of  sexual  traumas 
sustained  in  childhood  all  sexual  feelings  were 
repressed  and,  as  a  result,  she  was  totally 
frigid  when  she  was  married.  Indeed  coitus 
was  both  painful  and  disgusting  to  her.  This 
produced  marked  marital  unhappiness.  Her 
husband  failed  to  understand  her  condition, 
and  what  made  matters  worse  was  the  fact 
that  he  found  her  masturbating  in  her  sleep. 
When  he  first  noticed  it  he  was  very  indignant 
and  tried  to  call  her  to  account  for  it,  but  she 
continued  to  sleep  ;  he  tried  to  arouse  her  but 
she  did  not  respond.  He  thought  at  first  she 
was  shamming,  but  finally  concluded  that  '  she 
had  a  fit  '  and  reported  the  matter  to  the  family 
physician.  This  somnambulistic  state  during 
which    she    masturbated    was   repeated    on    an 


THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES  137 

average  of  five  to  six  times  a  week.  There 
was  complete  amnesia  for  this  action.  She  at 
first  refused  to  believe  it,  but  she  was  finally 
convinced  of  it  by  her  own  sister,  who  saw  her 
do  it  on  the  occasion  of  sleeping  with  her.  She 
then  sought  the  aid  of  a  physician  who  gave 
her  large  doses  of  bromide  and  advised  her  to 
wear  a  sock  over  her  hand  and  firmly  tie  her 
hand  in  complete  flexion.  While  she  was  being 
treated  for  her  masturbation  it  was  reported 
to  her  that  her  husband  carried  on  some  illicit 
relations  with  one  of  the  girls  she  employed. 
She  absolutely  refused  to  believe  this,  and  no 
amount  of  urging  on  the  part  of  her  husband's 
own  relatives  could  induce  her  to  dismiss  this 
girl.  The  latter  was  the  daughter  of  a  very 
poor  woman,  and  it  was  out  of  compassion  that 
she  had  taken  her  into  her  millinery  establish- 
ment and  taught  her  the  business.  This  state 
of  affairs  continued  for  months.  She  was  ex- 
tremely jealous,  yet  her  pride  would  not  allow 
her  to  take  any  action  in  the  matter.  It  was 
after  a  quarrel  about  some  other  matters,  during 
which  her  husband  grasped  her  by  the  right 
arm  that  it  became  painful  and  developed  into 
the  condition  noted  above.  As  she  was  the 
moving  spirit  in  the  millinery  establishment 
the  business  had  to  be  given  up  and  she  was 
totally  incapacitated  by  her  malady. 


138  THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES 

Here  we  see  the  conflict  between  the  energy 
of  desire  and  the  repression.  The  repressed 
feelings  made  her  consciously  frigid  and  uncon- 
sciously passionate.  When  her  masturbation 
was  brought  to  her  consciousness  she  took  all 
the  precautions  to  prevent  it,  but  as  usual  she 
was  unsuccessful.  Her  husband's  faithlessness 
gave  rise  to  another  conflict.  Her  pride  got  the 
upper  hand  and  she  absolutely  refused  to  believe 
what  everyone  else  saw  and  what  she  herself 
could  not  fail  to  see.  When  her  husband 
grasped  her  by  this  arm  which  was  the  cause  of 
so  much  mental  pain — it  was  the  one  with  which 
she  masturbated— the  conversion  took  place. 
The  symptom,  as  Freud  puts  it,  was  the  result 
of  a  compromise  between  the  opposing  affects, 
one  of  which  strove  to  bring  to  a  realisation  a 
partial  impulse  or  a  component  of  the  sexual 
constitution,  while  the  other  strove  to  repress 
the  same.  This  symptom,  as  we  see,  served 
a  double  purpose.  It  stopped  the  masturbation 
and  incapacitated  her  to  such  an  extent  that  her 
business  had  to  be  given  up,  and  the  girl  who 
caused  her  so  many  pangs  had  to  go.  The  pain 
was  also  the  punishment  for  the  underlying 
sexual  desire.  She  never  masturbated  with  her 
left  hand,  nor  has  she  ever  been  seen  mastur- 
bating since  she  was  cured  by  psychoanalysis." 

A    verv    similar    case    came    under   mv   own 


THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES  iy} 

observation,  which  on  account  of  its  similarity, 
shows  how  often  wc  may  expect  a  given  substra- 
tum of  material  in  any  patient,  even  at  a  super- 
ficial   examination    and    before    analysis    takes 
place.     The    patient    was    a    woman    of    about 
twenty-eight,  and  her  trouble  also  was  a  paralys- 
ed right  arm  which  was  contracted  with  the  elbow 
Hexed   at    right    angles — the    hand   and    fingers 
also  flexed  and  contracted.     The  patient  from 
childhood  upwards  had  lived  in  an  atmosphere 
of   religion   of   an   extremely   bigoted   and   dog- 
matic type.     She  had  been  brought  up  in  almost 
entire  ignorance  of  sexual  matters,  and  with  the 
idea  that  every  thought,  however  remote,  pertain- 
ing thereto,  should  be  rigorously  excluded  from 
the  mind.     As  a  result  of  this  she  learned  to 
look  upon  marriage  itself  as  a  mere  cloak  for 
making  sin  respectable,  and  to  be  avoided  by 
anyone  who  wished  to  live  the  highest  type  of 
life.     Nevertheless   amazing   as   it    may   sound, 
she    had    from    childhood    upwards    constantly 
practised   masturbation,    but   without   realising 
that  this  action   had  any  gross  sexual  import, 
so    profound    was    her    ignorance   of   all    sexual 
matters.     A    short    period    before    her    trouble 
with  the  arm  commenced  she  read  a  book  writ- 
ten by  some  well  meaning,  but  ignorant  person 
which  had  the  object  of  opening  people's  eye;- 
to    the    "  dangers  "    of    masturbation.     In    this 


140  THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES 

book  were  the  usual  false  statements  which  so 
often  do  harm,  to  the  effect  that  masturbators 
become  insane,  get  "  softening  "  of  the  spinal 
cord,  etc.  The  patient  realised  with  complete 
suddenness  that  she  had  been  committing  a 
perverted  and  bestial  act  of  the  worst  kind  and 
sustained  the  added  shock  that  firstly  her 
body  and  brain  would  shortly  begin  to  suffer, 
and  that  secondly  her  immortal  soul  would  be 
damned  for  ever.  The  first  conflict  that  arose 
was  with  her  own  habit.  This  had  grown  upon 
her,  and  no  amount  of  fear  could  subdue  her 
desires  in  this  direction.  For  a  short  time  the 
continuous  thinking  upon  the  subject,  by  auto- 
suggestion, and  the  unconscious  counterwill  in- 
creased her  habit  tenfold.  Then  for  a  period 
she  repressed  the  thoughts  altogether  and  suc- 
ceeded in  overcoming  her  habit.  Then  some 
stimulus  caused  the  mental  conflict  to  be  about 
to  become  conscious  once  more  ;  other  re- 
pressed conflicts  of  an  infantile  nature,  which  I 
need  not  go  into  here,  were  also  present  ;  and 
suddenly  she  sought  refuge  in  a  conversion 
hysteria  and  gained  complete  peace  of  mind  and 
apparently  total  forgetfulness  at  the  expense 
of  a  paralyzed  arm.  Analysis  showed  a  very 
striking  series  of  wish  fulfilments  similar  to  those 
observed  in  dreams.  Moreover,  as  the  analysis 
proceeded,  we  found  that  as  in  dreams  the  one 


The  functional  diseases        i4i 

symptom  was  the  disguise  or  symbol  of  several 
ideas  requiring  simultaneous  expression.  In 
the  first  place  the  paralysed  arm  was  a  punish- 
ment from  God,  and  since  she  was  being  pun- 
ished now  she  would  avoid  punishment  here- 
after. Secondly,  it  represented  the  physical 
effect  of  her  evil  doing,  and  since  the  harm  done 
had  resulted  in  a  paralysed  arm  her  spinal 
cord  and  brain  would  be  safe  from  further 
trouble.  Thirdly,  the  hand  which  had  per- 
formed the  deed  was  no  longer  able  to  do 
so,  and  hence  desires  were  futile,  hence  al- 
so desires  did  not  arise  !  Illogical  reason- 
ing no  doubt,  but  quite  good  enough  to 
form  a  path  of  safety  for  the  unhappy 
mind  of  the  patient,  who,  it  must  be  re- 
membered, was  entirely  unconscious  of  the 
cause  of  her  trouble,  or  of  the  reasoning  which 
had  taken  place  in  her  unconscious.  Under 
analysis  the  repressed  material  of  course  became 
conscious,  some  of  the  energy  was  sublimated, 
and  readjustment  of  outlook  and  re-education  in 
habits  of  thought,  together  witli  complete 
restoration  of  use  of  the  arm,  transformed  her 
into  a  happy  and  useful  woman  once  more. 

Of  course  masturbation  complexes  are  not 
behind  all  conversion  hysterias.  Those  I  have 
quoted  hitherto  merely  happened  to  have  this 
complex,  and   I   am  including  them  because  of 


142  THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES 

their  simplicity  and  for  purposes  of  comparison, 
as  suggested  above.  Nearly  every  possible 
type  of  infantile  repression  with  its  ensuing  con- 
flict is  represented  in  these  conversion  hysterias. 
x\  case  is  given  by  Freud  in  which  a  patient, 
a  woman,  had  a  very  severe  neuralgia  of  the 
facial  nerve.  Analysis  showed  that  this  repre- 
sented physically  the  mental  idea  of  a  slap  in  the 
face,  and  was  traced  to  an  occasion  upon  which 
the  husband  had  insulted  the  patient.  I  have 
not  gone  into  the  repressed  infantile  material  in 
this  case,  as  it  is  not  necessary  for  our  purpose 
here.  One  notices  the  similarity  between  the 
dream  and  the  hysteria,  i.e.,  the  production  of  a 
symbol  or  cartoon  to  express  the  repressed  idea 
in  a  hidden  form.  This  same  patient  of  Freud's 
later  exhibited  the  condition  known  as  "  globus 
hystericus."  It  represented  "  I  cannot  swallow 
that." 

Conversion  hysterias  may  have  almost  any 
physical  sign  or  symptom,  imitating  with  con- 
siderable accuracy  almost  any  kind  of  actual 
lesion.  Such  symptoms  may  include  practically 
any  motor  or  sensory  innervations  or  inhibitions; 
common  forms  met  with  are  aphonias,  paralyses, 
contractures,  anaesthesias,  hyperesthesias,  pains, 
(especially  neuralgias  and  abdominal  pains), 
vomiting,  diarrhoea,  constipation,  etc. 

The  Anxiety  Hysterias. — These  have  a  similar 


THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES  143 

mechanism  to  the  conversion  hysterias,  but 
instead  of  the  repressed  complexes  being  con- 
verted into  physical  symptoms  they  disguise 
themselves  on  a  second  mental  plane  as  either 
hysterical  daydreams  or  phobias  or  "  hysterical 
attacks."  They  differ  from  the  conversion 
hysterias,  however,  in  that  the  patients  suffer- 
ing from  the  latter  as  a  rule  are  calm  and  happy, 
whereas  those  suffering  from  an  anxiety  hysteria 
frequently  show  signs  of  anxiety  and  apprehen- 
sion, together  with  many  of  the  signs  and  symp- 
toms to  be  described  under  the  anxiety  neuroses. 
For  the  moment,  however,  we  will  confine  our- 
selves to  the  formation  of  the  phobias,  hysterical 
daydreams,  or  hysterical  "  attacks." 

Another  point  of  difference  between  the  anxiety 
hysterias  and  conversion  hysterias  is  that  in 
the  anxiety  hysterias  there  is  nearly  always 
some  actual  disturbance  and  abnormal  repres- 
sion of  the  sexual  actions  themselves  with  their 
attendant  emotions.  These  specific  sexual  dis- 
turbances will  also  be  discussed  under  the 
anxiety  neuroses,  for  many  of  which  they  arc 
directly  responsible.  In  fact,  one  may  say 
that  in  the  anxiety  hysterias  the  hysterical 
daydreams  and  phobias  correspond  with  the  re- 
pression of  unpleasant  conflicts,  while  the  anxiety 
and  physical  signs  correspond  with  the  actual 
sexual  disturbance. 


144  THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES 

A  hysterical  daydream  or  phantasy  generally 
occurs  in  patients  who  have  overcome  mastur- 
bation and  have  got  no  other  relief  for  an 
overstimulated  sexual  impulse,  their  powers  of 
sublimation  being  undeveloped,  i.e.,  it  is  a 
conflict  between  a  repressed  wish  and  an  in- 
ternal inhibition.  These  hysterical  daydreams 
generally  show  three  distinct  stages  corres- 
ponding to  the  three  stages  in  masturbation, 
in  fact  they  may  be  looked  upon  as  substitutes. 
The  first  stage  is  phantastic  euphoria  ;  the 
the  second  stage  is  self  absorption,  when  the 
patient  withdraws  from  reality  and  is  exalted 
and  finds  gratification  in  his  secret  thoughts  ; 
the  third  stage  is  one  of  depression,  correspond- 
ing closely  with  that  depression  found  to  follow 
the   masturbatory   act. 

I  cannot  do  better  than  quote  in  this  con- 
nection one  or  two  cases  from  Stoddart's  New 
Psychiatry  : 

"  i. — A  young  woman  used  to  imagine  herself 
married  to  a  handsome  wealthy  man.  She  had 
three  most  beautiful  children  ;  they  all  lived  in 
blissful  happiness  on  a  magnificent  yacht  and 
entertained  most  charming  people.  Then  the 
whole  structure  crumbled  ;  her  husband  and 
children  died  and  she  was  left  alone  in  a  terrible 
depression  lasting  for  days. 

2.     A   young   weaver   who    thought    he   was 


THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES  145 

persecuted  by  his  employer  used  to  think  what 
he  would  do  if  he  had  £400  a  year.  He  imagined 
himself  starting  a  shop  and  earning  much 
money  by  oppressing  his  employees.  His  busi- 
ness grew  until  he  had  hundreds  of  people  work- 
ing for  him.  He  became  greater  and  greater 
until  he  found  he  had  lost  all  his  money  on  the 
Stock  Exchange. 

3.  A  young  journalist  imagines  himself  run- 
ning a  race  and  winning,  when  he  is  struck  in 
the  thigh  by  the  spiked  shoe  of  one  of  the 
competitors.  He  is  bleeding  and  his  trainers 
try  to  stop  him,  but  he  strikes  them  aside  and 
runs  on,  winning  the  race.  Then  he  collapses 
exhausted  and  is  carried  off  amidst  the  cheers 
of  the  crowd. 

4.  A  case  from  Freud  :  A  lady  imagined 
herself  in  delicate  relationship  with  a  piano 
virtuoso  whom  she  did  not  know  personally. 
In  her  fantasy  she  bore  him  a  child.  He  de- 
serted her,  leaving  her  and  her  child  in  misery. 
She  then  suddenly  found  herself  in  tears  in  the 
street  along  which  she  happened  to  be  walking. 

Those  who  are  familiar  with  psycho-analysis 
will  discern  the  sexual  complexes  underlying 
these  daydreams  :  -The  desire  for  marriage 
in  the  first  and  last,  the  sadistic  complex  in  the 
second,  and  the  exhibition  tendency  in  the 
third." 


146  THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES 

If  the  anxiety  hysteria  does  not  take  the  form 
of  a  daydream  such  as  those  given  above  it 
may  appear  as  a  phobia,  but  these  phobias  do 
not  have  a  masturbator}'  complex  behind  them 
as  a  rule. 

All  phobias  do  not  belong  to  the  anxiety 
hysterias.  Some  are  present  in  the  compulsion 
hysterias  (compulsion  neuroses). 

The  phobias  have  been  classified  by  Freud  in 
the  first  instance,  but  his  classification  has 
been  repeatedly  modified  as  the  result  of  new 
work,  so  that  one  cannot  lay  down  a  definite 
rule  placing  every  particular  phobia  as  a  symp- 
tom of  a  particular  neurosis.  Originally  pho- 
bias were  divided  into  two  groups  : — The  sub- 
stituted and  the  unsubstituted  phobias.  The 
substituted  phobias  were  those  in  which  the 
phobia  was  of  a  similar  nature  to  a  conversion 
hysteria — that  is,  there  was  a  definite  substitu- 
tion and  outlet  for  definite  repressed  ideas  and 
conflicts,  the  difference  being  that  here  we  had 
substitution  on  a  mental  plane,  whereas  in  the 
conversions  hysterias  the  substitution  took  place 
in  the  physical  plane.  Such  phobias  were 
generally  of  a  fairly  definite  nature,  such  as  fear 
of  cats,  of  needles  or  pins,  of  blood,  etc.,  there 
being  no  limit  to  the  variety  of  these  fears,  the 
chief  point  about  them  being  that  they  were 
by  no  means  vague,  but  strongly  defined. 


THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES  147 

Unsubstitutcd  phobias,  on  the  other  hand, 
were  those  which  were  not  reducible  to  repressed 
ideas,  but  were  apparently  mere  expressions 
of  anxiety  seizing  upon  a  convenient  experience. 
These  belonged  to  the  anxiety  neuroses  :  ex- 
amples of  this  type  are  claustrophobia,  agora- 
phobia, the  fear  of  thunderstorms  and  similar 
fears  of  a  vague  type.  This  classification  as  it 
stands,  no  longer  holds  good. 

The  anxiety  hysterias  certainly  claim  many 
substituted  phobias  which  originally  were  classed 
with  the  compulsion  neuroses.  The  so-called 
unsubstitutcd  phobias  are  certainly  sometimes 
to  be  classified  amongst  substituted  phobias  : 
for  instance,  I  have  found  agoraphobia  as  a 
definite  expression  of  a  strongly  repressed  ex- 
hibitionism in  which  the  phobia  was  an 
exaggerated  reversal  of  the  repressed  desire. 
Agoraphobia  represented  the  patient's  idea  of 
being  too  much  exposed.  Claustrophobia,  on 
the  other  hand,  has  certainly  appeared  in  one 
instance  to  be  associated  with  a  strongly  marked 
Oedipus  complex. 

Thus  although  the  classification  has  some 
foundation  in  fact  we  cannot  yet  state  definitely 
which  of  the  phobias  indicates  at  once  a  parti- 
cular hysteria  or  neurosis.  It  may,  however, 
be  taken  that  a  person  suffering  from 
a   phobia   has  either  a   compulsion   neurosis  or 


148  THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES 

an  anxiety  hysteria,  and  the  differential 
diagnosis  between  the  two  can  easily  be  made 
when  the  physician  goes  further  into  the  patient's 
history  and  condition. 

Ernest  Jones  gives  a  good  example 
of  the  material  out  of  which  a  phobia  may  be 
built.  Shortly,  the  case  he  describes  is  as 
follows  :  "A  young  man  when  standing  on  any 
height  was  afflicted  with  slight  morbid  anxiety 
nervousness,  dread,  giddiness,  palpitation,  sweat- 
ing, etc.,  with  a  definite  fear  of  jumping  over 
the  edge.  This  was  always  more  severe  when 
the  edge  overlooked  deep  water.  The  presence 
of  any  other  man  at  the  time  made  him  afraid 
that  the  latter  would  throw  him  over  :  this  fear 
did  not  apply  to  women.  Association  gave  the 
following  details  :  At  the  age  of  ten  in  a  crowded 
concert  hall  an  adult  made  him  sit  on  the  window 
ledge  six  feet  above  the  stairs  :  he  was  very 
afraid  of  falling  and  in  about  half  an  hour  got 
the  friend  to  lift  him  down.  (This  incident, 
however,  does  not  contain  sufficient  psychic 
damage  in  itself  to  cause  the  phobia,  but  it  is 
evidently  well  adapted  to  bring  the  phobia  into 
prominent  evidence).  The  previous  year  his 
father  had  taken  him  up  a  tower  200  feet  high,. 
with  a  projecting  balcony  at  the  top.  lie  was 
verv  greatly  afraid  of  this  balcony,  although 
it    was    protected    by    railings,    but    his    father 


THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES  149 

laughingly  forced  him  to  walk  round  it,  which 
ho  did  in  great  terror.  At  the  age  of  seven, 
a  school  teacher,  a  young  man,  had  suspended 
him  for  a  practical  joke,  upside  down  over  a 
high  wall,  playfully  threatening  to  let  him  drop, 
which  also  caused  him  great  terror.  At  the  age 
of  three,  a  visitor  picked  him  up  in  anger  on 
one  occasion  and  held  him  over  a  high  water 
tank,  into  which  he  threatened  to  drop  him. 
None  of  these  facts,  however,  are  sufficient  to 
account  for  the  phobia  in  themselves.  In 
normal  people  such  psychic  traumata,  and  even 
more  severe  ones,  often  occur  without  leading 
to  lasting  phobias.  Therefore  it  is  plain  that 
some  other  factor  must  be  operative  in  cases 
where  they  do. 

'  Through  the  analyses  of  Freud  and  others 
it  has  been  shown  that  a  repressed  wish  is 
symbolised  in  the  phobia,  and  that  the  con- 
tinued action  of  this  wish  is  responsible  for  the 
persistence  of  the  phobia.  Shortly,  every 
phobia  represents  a  compromise  between  one 
or  more  repressed  wishes  and  the  inhibiting 
forces  that  have  repressed  them.  The  activity 
of  these  wishes  constitutes  the  essential  and 
specific  cause  of  the  morbid  mental  state." 

In  discussing  this  phobia  further  Ernest  Jones 
continues  as  follows  :  '  The  same  phobia  by 
no  means  always  represents  the  same  repressed 

l 


150  THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES 

wish,  though  it  does  some  wishes  so  much  more 
frequently  than  others  that  these  may  be  called 
types.  The  common  types  of  wish  that  under- 
lie the  present  phobia  are  the  two  following  : 
(i).  The  repressed  desire  to  experience  some 
moral  fall.  This  is  symbolised  by  the  physical 
act  of  falling,  in  just  the  same  way  that  the 
spiritual  idea  of  purification  from  sin  is  symbolised 
in  the  material  act  of  ablution  with  water 
(baptism).  The  word  '  fall  '  is  very  commonly 
employed  to  indicate  the  idea  in  question — 
one  need  only  mention  such  expressions  as  '  to 
fall  from  grace,'  '  fallen  women,'  '  backsliding 
after  conversion,'  etc.— and  the  two  connotations 
of  the  word,  the  literal  and  the  metaphorical, 
generally  become  associated  in  the  unconscious, 
as  do  the  various  connotations  of  any  given 
word  or  of  any  pair  of  similarly  sounding  words 
(2). — The  repressed  desire  to  make  someone 
else  fall,  either  literally,  (to  throw  them  down 
and  hurt  or  kill  them)  or  metaphorically  (to 
encompass  their  rain).  The  present  case  is  an 
interesting  example  of  the  way  in  which  this 
cruel  wish  may  become  associated  with,  and 
replaced  in  consciousness  by,  the  fear  of  heights. 
The  chief  mechanism  involved  is  that  of  '  pro- 
jection,' so  common  in  both  the  disordered  and 
the  normal  (especially  the  infantile)  mind.  We 
find  it  typically  in  the  guilty  conscience,   for 


THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES  151 

instance  in  the  fear  of  punishment  for  sin,  and 
a  similar  theme  is  to  be  met  with  in  countless 
dramas  and  novels  in  which  the  doom  that  the 
villain  prepares  for  the  hero  recoils  on  himself." 
A  murderously  inclined  man  is  afraid  of  being 
murdered — he  ascribes  to  others  the  evil  desires 
of  his  own  heart  :  A  liar  does  not  trust  an  honest 
man  (Bernard  Shaw  justly  says  that  the  chief 
punishment  of  a  liar  is  not  at  all  that  he  is  not 
believed,  but  that  he  cannot  believe  others)  : 
and  so  on.  In  insanity  one  finds  regularly  that 
delusions  of  persecution  on  the  part  of  others 
are  the  reflections,  or  projections,  of  evil  thoughts 
deep  in  the  patient's  own  mind.  The  whole 
attitude  of  jealousy  and  fear  of  the  rising 
generation  so  frequent  in  older  people  (wonder- 
fully dramatised  in  Ibsen's  "  Master  Builder) 
is  partly  due  to  a  projection  on  to  the  former 
of  the  hostile  attitude  that  they  themselves 
when  young  indulged  in  towards  their  elders, 
and  now  feel  towards  their  juniors.  Instances 
could  be  indefinitely  multiplied,  but  these  few- 
will  probably  serve  to  recall  to  the  reader  a 
familiar  human  tendency. 

The  full  analysis  of  the  ease  described  above 
cannot  be  here  related,  but  some  of  the  principal 
findings  in  the  present  connection  were  these. 
As  a  baby  the  patient  had  been  very  sickly  and 
ailing  ;    his  mother  was  of  an   unusually  affec- 


152  THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES 

tionate  disposition  ;  he  was  the  only  child  :  for 
these  reasons  he  was  unduly  pampered  by  his 
mother,  who  doted  on  her  first-born  and  nursed 
him  night  and  day.  He  no  doubt  highly 
appreciated  this  affection,  for  when  another 
child  arrived — late  in  his  second  year — he 
showed  every  sign  of  resentment  at  this  apparent- 
ly superfluous  intrusion  into  the  circle  of  love 
where  he  had  hitherto  reigned  supreme.  Parti- 
cularly did  he  object  to  renouncing  the  pleasure 
of  being  cradled  in  his  mother's  arms,  which  till 
now  had  always  been  open  to  him,*  and  the 
having  to  wait  disconsolately  while  the  baby 
was  being  nursed.  The  following  trivial  incident 
will  illustrate  this  :  One  day  when  he  was  a  little 
over  two  years  old  he  called  out  vehemently 
to  his  mother,  "  Put  the  baby  down  in  the 
cradle  to  cry,  and  nurse  me."]  The  words 
"  to  cry  "  are  especially  to  be  noticed,  these 
clearly  being  an  unnecessary  refinement  of 
un kindness.  No  doubt  his  real  feelings,  the 
free  manifestations  of  which  were  already  being 
hampered  by  growing  inhibitions,  would  have 
been  more  truly  expressed  in  some  such  phrase 

*It  should  not   be   forgotten  that    the  height  of  a  mother's  arms 
is  greatly  magnified  in  the  imagination  of   a  little  child,  just  as   the' 
size  of  any  grown-up  person  is:    heme  the  giants  of  mythology. 

t  The  wording  is  in  all  probability  correct,  for  the  incident,  which 
was  often  repeated  as  a  family  story,  was  told  by  the  mother,  who 
remembered  it,  as  well  as  many  others,  very  distinctly. 


THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES  153 

as,  "  Heave  the  little  brat  on  to  the  floor,  throw 
it   away  for  good." 

Another  feature  of  importance  was  that 
throughout  his  childhood  he  had  suffered  greatly 
from  fear  of  his  father,  as  well  as  of  the  visitor 
mentioned  above,  a  man  who  was  closely  identi- 
fied in  his  mind  with  his  father.  Most  of  this 
fear  was  caused  by  a  projection  of  the  hostile 
thoughts  bred  by  his  jealousy  of  his  father.  He 
seeretly  hated  his  father,  and  nursed  phantasies 
of  killing  him,  so  he  ascribed  to  his  father  a 
similar  hostility  and  also  feared  the  hitter's 
retribution  if  his  evil  thoughts  became  known. 
Therefore,  when  first  the  visitor,  and  later  on  the 
father,  forced  him  into  a  situation  where  he  was 
in  peril  of  falling  from  a  height  (the  tank  and 
the  tower  incidents)  his  instinctive  re-action 
was,  'It's  come  at  last.  The  all-knowing 
father  has  discovered  my  sinful  thoughts,  and 
he  is  going  to  do  to  me  what  1  wanted  to  do  to 
my  little  sister  and  to  him." 

The  hate,  jealousy  and  hostility  that  had 
arisen  in  earliest  childhood  had  persisted  in  the 
patient's  unconscious  up  to  the  present,  in 
reference  both  to  the  relatives  first  concerned 
.tiid  other  associated  persons,  on  to  whom  it  had 
later  been  transferred.  Being  of  course  re- 
pressed through  t he  influence  of  moral  training, 
and  covered  as  well  by  a  real  love,  it  had  never 


154         THE   FUNCTIONAL   DISEASES 

been  consciously  experienced  in  its  full  intensity, 
manifesting  itself  chiefly  through  endless  friction 
and  irritability,  with  occasional  quarrels.  The 
suffering  and  unhappiness  resulting  from  these 
constituted  one  of  the  punishments  that  the 
patient's  guilty  conscience  brought  upon  him 
for  his  cruel  wishes.  The  phobia  was  another, 
a  more  direct  self-punishment.  When  the  pent- 
up  wishes  were  released  by  being  admitted  to 
consciousness,  and  thereby  weakened  through 
the  influence  of  various  mental  processes  to 
which  they  had  previously  been  inaccessible, 
a  considerable  improvement  took  place  in  his 
general  mental  condition,  and  the  phobia  became 
reduced  to  more  normal  proportions  :  the  fires 
that  had  fed  it  being  extinguished,  there  was 
nothing  to  keep  it  alive. 

On  the  basis  of  this  explanation  it  is  intel- 
ligible that  the  most  prominent  part  of  the 
phobia  had  been  the  patient's  fear  that  some 
other  man  would  throw  him  over  :  in  his  un- 
conscious his  avenging  father  was  always  with 
him.  The  fear  that  he  might  himself  jump  over 
was  a  more  direct  expression  of  the  repressed 
desire  to  do  wrong,  to  "  fall."  The  localisation 
to  the  neighbourhood  of  water  was  produced 
by  a  number  of  thoughts  relating  to  the  assoc- 
iations "  throwing  down — killing — death — 
birth  "  that  need  not  here  be  detailed. 


THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES  155 

According  to  the  second  of  the  two  views 
discussed  above,  therefore,  a  phobia  is  a  reaction 
to  a  repressed  wish.  It  expresses  the  patient's 
fear  (an  emotion  derived  from  the  fear  instinct) 
of  a  dissociated  part  of  his  own  mind,  of  a 
dangerous  tendency  that  he  is  afraid  might 
overpower  his  better  self :  in  popular  phraseology 
it  is  "  a  fear  of  himself."  The  influence  of  any 
psychical  trauma  is  merely  incidental  :  it  may 
be  made  use  of  by  the  phobia-building  agency, 
thus,  as  in  the  present  case,  helping  to  determine 
the  precise  form  this  process  shall  take. 

To  avoid  any  possible  misapprehension,  I 
will  repeat  in  conclusion  two  remarks  already 
made  above  :  first,  that  the  particular  repressed 
wisli  we  have  discussed  is  far  from  being  the 
only  one  that  may  underlie  a  phobia  of  falling 
(nor  was  it  by  any  means  the  only  one  in  this 
case,  though  it  was  the  chief  one)  ;  and  secondly, 
that  the  object  of  the  present  communication  is 
not  so  much  to  produce  any  convincing  evidence 
as  to  illustrate  the  contrast  between  two  views 
by  reference  to  a  given  case."* 


*  Psyiiio-.hialvzis.     Ernest  .Tunis. 


CHAPTER  IX 

The  Functional  Diseases   (continued). 

Compulsion  Hysterias.  (Compulsion  Neuroses). 
The  conflict  in  a  compulsion  hysteria  is  generally 
between  a  repressed  wish  and  repressing  forces 
which  are  not  true  inhibitions,  and  the  condition 
always  reveals  a  purely  erotic  basis,  the  symp- 
toms actually  being  a  substitution  for  repressed 
infantile  erotic  ideas  and  impulses.  It  thus 
differs  slightly  from  the  conversion  hysteria  in 
its  primitive  origin.  We  find  also  that  in  the 
compulsion  hysteria  the  primitive  repressed 
erotic  wish  is  usually  of  the  aggressive  type,  while 
in  the  conversion  hysteria  the  repressed  conflict 
is  of  sexual  passivity.  If  we  recover  the  early 
memories  of  a  patient  suffering  from  a  compuls- 
ion neurosis,  we  shall  probably  find  he  was  the 
aggressor  in  some  form  of  erotic  action  or  wish 
in  infancy,  whereas  the  patient  suffering  from  a 
conversion  hysteria  or  anxiety  hysteria  has  been 
the  one  aggressed  in  infancy,  he  having  played 
the  passive  role. 

In  the  compulsion  neuroses  the  actual   mech- 
anism of  formation  is  much  the  same  as  in  the 

156 


THE    FUNCTIONAL    DtSKASfcS— (Continued)  157 

conversion  hysteria.  There  are  strong  re- 
pressions which  are  in  clanger  of  breaking  down, 
and  the  energy  of  the  repressed  conilicts  has 
turned  into  the  neurosis  as  a  safeguard  against 
this  and  against  this  material  becoming  con- 
scious. Instead,  however,  of  the  hysteria  mani- 
festing itself  on  the  physical  plane  it  manifests 
itself  on  another  psychic  plane,  in  the  form  of 
obsessions,  doubts  or  irresistible  ideas.  The 
patient  is  thus  compelled  to  act  or  to  think  in 
some  manner  which  is  disturbing  to  his  con- 
scious mind  :  he  cannot  help  it.  In  some  casts 
of  compulsion  hysteria  phobias  appear  to  be 
present,  but  it  is  possible  that  they  really  relate 
to  a  simultaneous  anxiety  hysteria.  Moreover 
the  obsessions  on  the  psychic  plane  may  mani- 
fest themselves  as  visual  or  auditory  halluci- 
nations. These  are  not,  however,  as  a  rule, 
delusions,  at  any  rate  in  the  early  stages  :  for 
the  patient  may  be  quite  aware  of  the  fact  that 
the  voices  he  hears  or  the  imaginary  things 
which  he  sees  are  not  real,  although  they  may 
disturb  him  almost  as  much  as  if  they  were  real  : 
thus  the  compulsion  neurosis  differs  from  para- 
noid hysteria,  where  the  patient  has  true  de- 
lusions and  really  believes  in  the  voices  he 
hears  speaking  to  him.  It  is  by  no  means 
certain  however,  that  a  compulsion  neurosis, 
il    it    become   fixed   and   grow   worse,   may   not 


158  THE   FUNCTIONAL   DISEASES— (Continued) 

finally  end  in  the  patient  having  true  delusions  : 
I  have  not  yet  been  able  to  gather  sufficient 
evidence  on  this  point  to  satisfy  myself  that  it  is 
so.  The  obsessions  of  a  patient  suffering  from 
a  compulsion  neurosis  are  many  and  varied  : 
a  large  number  of  people  have  these  in  a  mild 
degree.  For  instance,  a  person  is  obliged  to 
step  on  the  cracks  of  every  third  pavingstone, 
or  to  count  and  to  touch  every  tenth  paling  by 
the  roadside.  A  variation  of  this  is  found 
when  the  patient  is  obliged  to  count  everything 
he  sees.  1  had  a  patient  who  felt  compelled 
to  stand  momentarily  upon  all  the  manholes  in 
the  pavement,  and  he  found  it  impossible  to 
break  the  obsession  himself. 

Another  form  of  compulsion  neurosis  is  one 
in  which  the  patient  feels  bound  to  question 
everything  which  comes  under  his  notice  : 
to  ask  himself  the  most  ridiculous  questions, 
such  as  whether  the  kettle  on  the  hob  is  real, 
or  whether  his  wife's  boots  fit  her.  Everything 
throughout  the  day,  whether  physical  or  intel 
lectual,  is  met  by  a  question  on  his  part,  not  of 
course  expressed  verbally,  but  a  question  asked 
of  himself,  and  a  great  worry  because  he  is  not 
satisfied  with  the  answer  he  gives  himself.  A 
variety  of  this  is  met  with  in  the  fairly  com- 
mon neurosis  known  as  folie  du  doute,  in  which 
the   patient   cannot   make  up   his  mind  about 


THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES  -(Continued)  rsQ 

anything.  At  the  present  moment  I  have  a 
patient  whom  I  am  analysing,  who  until  recently 
could  not  make  up  his  mind  in  the  morning 
which  sock  he  would  put  on  first,  and  throughout 
the  day  he  was  in  a  continual  state  of  doubt 
about  every  trivial  thing,  and  consequently  got 
nothing  done.  On  one  occasion,  he  spent 
nearly  two  hours  in  the  morning  trying 
to  make  up  his  mind  whether  he  should 
go  to  the  pit  or  take  other  seats  in  a  theatre 
for  that  night.  The  problem  was  so  difficult 
that  in  the  end  he  did  not  make  up  his  mind  at 
all.  This  form  of  compulsion  neurosis  is  a  fairly 
common  one,  and  invariably  one  finds  amongst 
other  complexes  present  a  strong  Oedipus  Com- 
plex, a  homosexual  complex,  an  anal-erotic  com- 
plex, and  an  exhibitionist  complex.  A  patient  I 
recently  analysed  who  had  folic  du  doittc  gave 
on  analysis  a  history  of  constipation  as  a  child, 
with  enemas  administered  per  rectum  by  his 
mother  :  he  showed  in  his  dress  and  mannerisms 
strong  exhibitionist  tendencies  :  he  confessed 
to  strong  homosexual  tendencies  as  a  boy,  which 
he  stated  had  passed  away,  and  that  he  was 
never  attracted  by  women  :  finally,  an  attack 
of  piles  was  associated  in  his  mind  with  the 
first  onset  of  his  trouble.  The  attack  of  piles 
apparently  acted  as  a  stimulant  to  his  anal-erotr- 
complex,  and  especially  his  rectal  examination  by 


i6o  THE   FUNCTIONAL   DISEASES- (Continued) 

a  doctor,  his  endeavours  to  prevent  an  operation 
by  the  daily  anointing  of  the  part  with  ointment, 
and  the  repetition  of  the  use  of  an  enema,  which 
brought  back  to  his  mind  the  enemas  adminis- 
tered to  him  by  his  mother  somewhere  about  the 
age  of  four.  It  was  obvious  that  he  had  a  strong 
erotic  fixation  on  his  mother  which  was  asso- 
ciated with  anal-eroticism  owing  to  his  infantile 
experiences.  This  also  accounted  to  some  extent 
for  his  repressed  homosexuality,  in  that  he 
reverenced  all  women  with  the  exaggerated 
reverence  which  he  gave  to  his  mother. 

Another  case  of  folic  du  do ut e  which  I  have 
recently  analysed,  curiously  enough  came  on 
immediately  after  the  patient  had  had  an 
operation  for  haemorrhoids.  Here  again  we  had 
an  anal-erotic  history  of  a  very  definite  kind  dat- 
ing right  back  to  infancy.  Here  again  the  patient 
had  strong  exhibition  tendencies,  which  not 
only  manifested  themselves  in  his  dreams  but 
also  in  the  profession  of  his  choice,  which  was 
that  of  a  public  speaker,  with  the  alternative 
that  he  might,  he  stated,  become  an  actor. 

Other  forms  which  the  compulsion  neurosis 
may  take  are  those  of  pyromania,  where  the 
patient  is  unable  to  resist  playing  with  fire, 
and  may  even  end  by  being  committed  to  prison 
for  arson,  though  he  is  really  no  more  to  blame 
than  a  person  suffering  from  acute  appendicitis  : 


THK    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES     (Continued)   161 

or  kleptomania,  also  an  unfortunate  form  of 
compulsion  neurosis,  and  like  the  mania  .for 
collecting  or  for  excessive  tidiness,  which  it 
nallv  resembles,  often  has  as  its  basis  a  strong 
anal-erotic  complex.  If  the  kleptomaniac  were 
analysed  instead  of  being  sent  to  prison,  there 
would  be  some  chance  of  his  reformation  : 
but  the  committal  to  prison  will  never  cure 
him,  for  his  obsession  is  completely  beyond  the 
control  of  his  conscious  mind,  just  as  much  as 
the  paralysed  arm  in  a  conversion  hysteria. 
Alchoholism  and  drug-taking  may  in  many 
cases,  though  not  in  all,  be  classed  among  the 
compulsion  neuroses  :  they  are  obvious  acts 
outside  the  patient's  normal  control,  which  are 
substitutes  for  infantile  forms  of  erotic  satis- 
faction. Automatic  writing  is  another  obses- 
sive act  :  here  the  patient  may  be  quite  unaware 
of  the  things  he  is  writing  down  until  he  reads 
them  over  afterwards.  The  analysis  of  such 
writings  may  moreover  reveal  very  speedily  the 
complex  which  lies  al  the  root  of  the  neurosis. 
Occasionally  one  may  even  get  an  obsession 
resembling  a  trance,  in  which  the  patient  will  go 
to  bed,  and,  though  conscious,  find  himself 
unable  to  move  or  to  speak.  Or  again,  a  person 
may  be  obsessed  with  the  idea  that  he  has  some 
particular  disease  and  that  he  must  go  to  b,-d 
and  stav  there.     Sometimes  he  will  be  obsessed 


162  THE   FUNCTIONAL   DISEASES— (Continued) 

with  the  idea  of  going  to  bed  without  having 
any  idea  of  disease,  and  may  stay  there  for 
months.  A  common  form  of  symptom  pre- 
sent in  a  compulsion  neurosis  is  psychosexual 
impotence  towards  a  particular  person  or  per- 
sons.* 

To  sum  up — the  obsessions  obviously  may  be 
of  an  endless  variety,  but  the  treatment  of  all 
of  them  is  the  same — psychoanalysis.  For 
where  the  conversion  hysteria  may  sometimes 
be  completely  cured  by  h\7pnotism,  it  is  very 
rarely  that  a  compulsion  neurosis  can  be  simi- 
larly cured.  Relief  may  be  found  while  the 
patient  is  actually  in  the  doctor's  hands,  but 
sooner  or  later  the  trouble  is  nearly  certain  to 
recur. 

Paranoid  Hysteria. — Paranoid  hysteria  may 
possibly  be  regarded  as  the  early  stage 
in  the  formation  of  true  paranoia.  The 
mechanism  and  formation  is  much  the  same 
as  regards  repression  and  the  side-tracking 
of  the  energy  of  unbearable  ideas  as  we  find 
in  the  conversion  and  the  compulsion 
hysterias.  It  differs,  however,  very  markedly 
in  one  respect,  and  that  is  in  the 
phenomenon  known  as  projection.  The  patient 
suffering  from  paranoid  hysteria  sees  no  defect 

*  A  ^.'t!  iff  •ten'  type  o.  psychos_'xu::l  impotence  is  present  in 
the   Anxietv   Neurosis 


THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES     (Continued)   163 

in  himself,  and  realises  no  obsession  nor  physical 
ailment  :  he  does,  however,  see  imaginary  de- 
fects in  other  people  :  in  other  words,  his 
obsessions  are  projected.  As  in  a  compulsion 
hysteria  he  very  likely  will  have  auditory  and 
visual  hallucinations,  but  in  paranoid  hysteria 
he  has  true  delusions  and  really  believes  in  the 
voices  he  hears  and  in  the  demons  which  his 
mind  conjures  up  :  the  auditory  delusions  are, 
however,  much  more  common  than  the  visual 
ones.  The  most  striking  point  in  paranoid 
hysteria  is  the  patient's  delusions  concerning 
other  people.  He  may  have  delusions  of  perse- 
cution, of  amorousness,  of  jealousy  or  of  exal- 
tation, and  if  these  delusions  become  strong 
enough  the  patient  may  merge  into  true  paranoia 
and  is  likely  to  have  homicidal  tendencies  to- 
wards the  persons  involved  in  his  imagination. 
In  all  the  cases  of  paranoid  hysteria  which  I 
have  seen  repressed  homosexuality  seems  to  be 
the  most  striking  feature  :  homosexuality  is 
always  very  strongly  developed  in  these  subjects, 
although  the  patient  may  be  totally 
unaware  of  it.  The  mechanism  by  which  he 
projects  his  delusions  lias  been  summed  up  by 
Stoddart  as  follows  : 

"  Unconsciously  the  paranoic  always  starts 
with  the  premise,  "1  love  the  man,"  (I  am 
assuming  the  patient  to  be  a  male).      The  argu- 


164  THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES— (Continued) 

ments    in    the    several    varieties    of    paranoia 
then  run  as  follows  : 

Persecuted  Paranoia. — "  I  love  the  man,"  an 
intolerable  idea,  therefore  becoming  "I  do  not 
love  him  ;  I  hate  him."  This  by  projection 
becomes,  "  He  hates  me.  I  am  persecuted  bv 
him." 

Exalted  Paranoia. — "  I  love  him,"  again  an 
intolerable  idea,  therefore,  "  I  do  not  love  him, 
I  love  myself."  This  by  projection  becomes, 
"  Everybody  loves  me."  "  I  am  a  great  per- 
son." 

Religious  Paranoia. — "  I  love  him,"  being 
intolerable,  becomes  "  I  love  Him  "  (spelt  with  a 
capital  H),  meaning  "  I  love  God."  This  by 
projection  becomes,  "  God  loves  me."  "  I  am 
the  chosen  one  of  God." 

Amorous  Paranoia. — The  intolerable,  "  I  love 
him,"  becomes  "  I  do  not  love  him,  I  love  her." 
This  by  projection  becomes,   "  She  loves  me." 

Jealous  Paranoia. — "  I  love  him,"  as  usual, 
is  replaced  by  '  I  do  not  love  him  ;  she 
loves  him." 

The  mechanism  of  hypochondriacal  paranoia 
is  similar  to  that  of  exalted  paranoia,  "  I  love 
myself,"  becoming  "  I  must  take  care  of  my- 
self," and  queralant  (sic)  paranoia  is  only  a 
special   variety   of   persecuted    paranoia." 

It  seems  as  if  many  cases  of  paranoia  if  analysed 


THE   FUNCTIONAL   DISEASES— (Continued)  165 

at  a  sufficiently  early  stage  might  be  cured,  in- 
stead of  ending  as  they  so  often  do  in  a  lunatic 
asylum  :  and  according  to  accounts  given  by 
Ferenczi  and  others  even  cases  which  are  far 
advanced  appear  to  be  curable.  Certainly  the 
cases  I  have  analysed  have  all  been  very  early 
ones,  and  out  of  about  half  a  dozen  I  have  only 
had  one  relapse.  In  that  particular  case  the 
patient  was  so  averse  from  analysis  and  from 
me  that  although  he  had  improved  for  a  time 
we  could  not  go  on  with  the  work,  and  he  is  now 
in  an  asylum,  having  attempted  among  other 
things  to  burn  down  his  father's  house. 

One  must  lay  particular"  stress  on  the  fact, 
however,  that  all  paranoid  cases  are  not,  with 
our  present  knowledge,  suitable  for  treatment. 
I  am  particularly  careful  in  selecting  cases  for 
treatment,  not  only  because  some  are  very 
resistant  to  treatment  (for  you  will  remember 
that  paranoid  hysterias  do  not  as  a  rule  admit 
that  there  is  anything  the  matter  with  them), 
but  also  because  they  have  a  habit  of  projecting 
such  ideas  as  persecution  upon  the  physician, 
who  is  then  liable  to  run  a  distinct  danger  from 
his  patient.  One  cannot  emphasise  too  strongly 
the  necessity  for  very  careful  discrimination  in 
selecting  a  paranoid  patient  for  treatment.  There 
are,  however,  cases  of  compulsion  hysteria  that 
very  closely  resemble  and  are  often  mistaken  for 


166  THE   FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES  -(Continued) 

paranoia  :  these  are  all  amenable  to,  and  excel- 
lent cases  for,  psychoanalysis. 

Dementia  Proecox. — A  similar  mechanism  is 
stated  to  be  present  in  dementia  praecox,  with  a 
reversal  of  the  procedure.  Instead  of  pro- 
jecting his  ego  upon  the  world — the  patient 
withdraws  everything  into  his  innermost  self. 
I  have,  however,  not  yet  attempted  to  analyse 
a  case  of  this  kind,  nor  have  I  been  satisfied  that 
any  of  the  cases  that  have  been  reported  to  me 
as  being  cases  of  dementia  praecox  have  in  fact 
been  such.  I  therefore  include  this  disease  in 
this  chapter  with  some  misgiving,  and  more 
because  several  well-known  analyists  abroad 
have  vouched  for  it  than  because  I  am  as  yet 
convinced. 

Anxiety  Neuroses. — As  stated  earlier,  the 
anxiety  neuroses  have  as  their  basis  a  repression 
of  psychic  energy  rather  than  of  conflicting 
ideas  or  wishes,  although  of  course  in  no  case 
can  we  quite  separate  the  energy  underlying  the 
emotion  from  some  accompanying  idea.  Here 
there  arises  the  difficulty  in  separating  the 
anxiety  neurosis  from  the  anxiety  hysteria, 
and  whether  we  are  to  call  the  manifestations 
the  one  or  the  other  depends  largely  upon  the 
number  of  repressed  complexes  present  as  opposed 
to  the  amount  of  accumulated  emotion.  Thus 
the  anxiety  neurosis  is  very  often  accompanied 


THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES     (Continued)   167 

by  a  phobia,  especially  of  the  so-called  unsub- 
stituted  type.  The  mechanism  of  the  anxiety 
neurosis  seems  to  consist  in  the  gradual  accumu- 
lation or  repression  of  psychic  energy  :  this 
remains  unused  and  finding  no  outlet,  in  its 
endeavour  to  escape  from  repression  causes 
many  physical  and  mental  manifestations  of  a 
widely  differing  type.  The  mental  manifestations 
are  chiefly  those  of  anxiety  in  various  forms, 
and  the  tension  caused  by  this  mental  anxiety- 
appears  to  react  physically,  even  appears  to 
produce  such  symptoms  as  changes  in  the 
secretory  glands.  We  may  liken  the  mind  of 
the  person  suffering  from  an  anxiety  neurosis 
to  a  steam  boiler  with  the  safety  valve  closed 
down  :  when  the  steam  pressure  continues  to 
rise  but  finds  no  outlet  it  finally  bursts  the 
joints  between  the  plates  and  breaks  out  through 
the  rivet  holes  and  other  places.  So  the  anxiety 
neurosis  appears  to  be  a  kind  of  leaking  or 
bursting  out  of  psychic  energy  in  the  wrong 
direction.  The  continued  repression  of  normal 
psychic  energy  appears  to  be  able  to  cause 
this  neurosis  in  normal  life  :  the  chief  causes 
are  those  directly  connected  with  sex,  the  three 
commonest  causes  being  firstly,  long  engage- 
ments between  men  and  women  in  which  there 
is  continuously  erotic  desire  which  is  repressed 
with  difficulty  and  never  consummated.   Second- 


168  THp;   FUNCTIONAL   DISEASES- (Continued) 

ly,  coitus  interruptus,  by  which  we  mean  that 
type  of  coitus  where  the  man  in  order  to  avoid 
adding  to  his  family  makes  a  regular  habit  of 
withdrawing  himself  from  his  wife  before  the 
actual  emission  takes  place.  In  this  case  the 
emotional  discharge  is  far  from  normal  and  is 
quite  inadequate  to  the  occasion.  A  gradual 
accumulation  of  psychic  energy  seems  to  take 
place,  which  at  a  suitable  moment  manifests 
itself  as  an  anxiety  neurosis.  Thirdly,  we  have 
coitus  reservatus.  In  this  case  either  the  man 
or  the  woman  deliberately  and  habitually  holds 
back  his  emotional  discharge  for  several  minutes, 
so  that  it  may  take  place  simultaneously  with  the 
emotional  discharge  J  of  the  other  person,  who 
takes  a  longer  period  to  reach  that  final  stage 
of  coitus.  But  these  emotions  are  by  no  means 
the  only  ones  which  appear  to  cause  the  anxiety 
neurosis.  The  continued  repression  for  long 
periods  of  fear  or  of  disgust  such  as  has  been 
caused  in  many  by  the  recent  war,  lead  to  a  very 
similar  condition,  though  the  resulting  anxiet\T 
neurosis  has  very  often  been  termed  "  shell 
shock." 

Characteristics  of  an  Anxiety  Neurosis.— In 
giving  the  signs  and  symptoms  which  may  be 
present  in  this  disease  I  must  warn  readers 
not  to  expect  to  meet  all  or  even  most  of  them 
in  any  one  case.     Often  perhaps  only  one  trivial 


THE    FUNCTIONAL   DISEASES— (Continued)  169 

symptom  is  complained  of,  and  no  physical 
signs  at  all  may  be  present.  In  other  cases, 
however,  we  may  have  very  nearly  the  whole 
syndrome. 

The  Anxiety  Neurosis  shows  all  the  signs  and 
symptoms  of  anxiety,  hence  its  name.  We  see 
it  in  a  mild  and  temporary  form  in  students 
about  to  undergo  an  examination,  or  runners 
about  to  commence  a  race.  It  is  common 
knowledge  that  in  these  instances  the  muscles 
may  be  held  tense.  There  is  increased  rapidity 
of  both  respiration  and  pulse.  There  may  be  a 
certain  amount  of  sweating,  and  the  desire  for 
more  frequent  micturition  is  common.  That 
is  our  temporary  and  trivial  anxiety  neurosis. 
In  the  major  and  chronic  forms  we  have  to 
tabulate,  however,  a  much  larger  variety  of 
symptoms  and  signs. 

Symptoms. — The  patient  may  complain  of 
fits  of  depression,  of  great  irritability  of  temper, 
of  worrying  about  trifles,  of  impaired  powers 
of  concentration  and  memory,  of  lack  of  confi- 
dence, headaches,  giddiness,  and  even  actual 
collapse  following  this  giddiness,  in  which  he 
loses  consciousness.  He  may  term  this  collapse 
a  "  fit,"  but  it  is  more  probably  due  to  a  vaso- 
motor change  leading  to  an  ordinary  fainting 
attack.  Insomnia  is  another  common  com- 
plaint.    Sleep  may  be  broken  by  terrible  dreams, 


170  THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES-  (Continued) 

and  in  the  case  of  the  war  neurosis  particularly, 
by  battle-dreams,  which  often  repeat  the  pa- 
tient's own  experiences  most  vividly.  He  may 
further  complain  of  morbid  anxieties  and  fears, 
i.e.,  the  unsubstituted  phobias  of  which  we 
spoke  previously,  of  disturbed  appetite  and 
feelings  of  nausea,  but  without  any  vomiting. 
He  often  complains  also  of  frequency  of  mic- 
turition, especially  at  night,  and  of  sexual 
impotence.  He  may  state  that  he  is  disturbed 
by  the  slightest  noise,  that  he  is  very  readily 
excited,  that  on  excitement  he  gets  palpitation  of 
the  heart  and  shortness  of  breath.  On  excite- 
ment also  he  may  be  inclined  to  stammer, 
especially  when  meeting  strangers.  Occasion- 
ally he  complains  of  anginal  attacks,  with  a  fear 
of  impending  death.  Generally  speaking,  he 
lives  in  a  state  of  apprehension  which  may  be 
very  mild  or  quite  acute.  The  patient  is  very 
easily  exhausted,  probably  because  he  is  using 
so  mucli  energy  in  making  himself  in  a  tense 
condition  generally. 

Signs. — The  patient  looks  anxious  and  wor- 
ried. He  may  have  general  tremors  of  the  body 
or  localised  tremors  of  the  hands,  fingers  or 
tongue.  His  deep  reflexes  are  exaggerated. 
He  may  on  occasions  have  a  spurious  ankle 
clonus,  or  even  rombergism.  His  muscles  are 
commonly  hypertonic,  and  he  is  unable  to  relax 


THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES     (Continued)   171 

them.  If  his  arm  be  lifted  it  does  not  fall 
instantly,  even  when  he  is  told  to  allow  it  to 
do  so.  Just  as  the  muscles  are  in  a  state  of 
hypertension  so  do  the  arteries  appear  to  be 
for  his  blood  pressure  is  often  20mm. 
to  40mm.  higher  than  the  normal  for  his  age 
and  general  condition.*  There  arc  other  vaso- 
motor disturbances  as  evidenced  by  alterations 
of  his  secretions.  He  may  sweat  profusely 
from  time  to  time  or  on  the  slightest  exertion. 
Sometimes  night  sweats  are  complained  of.  His 
gastric  secretions  appear  to  be  disturbed.  The 
hands  and  feet  may  be  cyanosed  and  cold. 
Among  the  muscles  held  in  a  rigid  condition 
the  diaphragm  particularly  may  be  mentioned. 
In  many  cases  I  have  seen  it  appeared  to  be 
entirely  without  action.  The  breathing  was 
entirely  of  the  costal  type  and  abdominal 
breathing  could  not  be  performed  by  the  patient 
even  with  voluntary  effort.  In  such  cases  the 
lower  border  of  the  lungs  appeared  to  be  drawn 
upwards  so  that  the  apex  beat  of  the  heart 
became  more  than  usually  visible.  In  con- 
nection with  this  even  when  there  was  a  certain 
amount  of  diaphragmatic  breathing  a  systolic 
murmur  is  often  heard  over  the  apex  of  the 
heart,  but  it  is  not  conducted  towards  the  axilla, 

*      "Relation     of      Blootl     Pressure    in     tin-     Psvl honour1  >.v*," 
I\uil    Rousticld.        "The    Practitioner,"    November,    1918. 


1;2  THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES— (Continued) 

nor  indeed  in  any  direction.  The  explanation 
of  this  is  difficult  to  give,  as  it  is  certainly  not 
due  to  any  lesion  of  the  heart,  but  probably  to  a 
disturbed  relation  between  the  pericardium 
and  its  surroundings.  Tachycardia  and  dysp- 
noea are  very  common.  Diarrhoea  or  constipa- 
tion may  be  present.  The  patient  may  be 
very  emotional  and  weep  during  examination. 
Stammering  is  often  present  in  those  cases  where 
the  respiration  is  disturbed.  If,  however,  it  be 
present  in  those  cases  where  the  breathing  is 
not  disturbed,  I  generally  find  we  are  dealing 
with  an  hysterical  symptom  rather  than  with 
one  due  to  the  pure  anxiety  neurosis. 

A  few  words  on  the  treatment  of  anxiety 
neurosis  will  not  be  out  of  place  here.  ;\nalysis 
may  or  may  not  be  required,  according  to  the 
amount  of  contemporaneous  anxiety  hysteria 
present.  It  will,  however,  be  obvious  from  our 
statement  of  the  causes  of  the  anxiety  neuroses 
that  one  of  the  essential  things  is  for  the  patient 
to  rectify  as  far  as  possible  any  abnormal 
sexual  conditions,  and  for  this  purpose,  of 
course,  the  requisite  advice  from  the  physician 
is  necessary.  This  must  often  be  supplemented, 
however,  with  a  certain  amount  of  psycho- 
analysis in  order  that  the  physician  may  discover 
the  mental  complexes  which  lie  at  the  root  of 
the  patient's  abnormal  behaviour. 


THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES     (Continued)   17.} 

This  particularly  applies  to  those  anxiety 
neuroses  which  have  their  origin  in  complexes 
concerned    with    the    instinct    of    propagation. 

In  those  connected  with  the  instinct  of  self- 
preservation*  (fear,  etc.,)  a  rather  different 
method  of  removing  the  repressed  emotional 
energy  may  be  used.  In  a  typical  case  arising 
out  of  the  war  the  patient  has  repressed  the 
instincts  of  fear,  disgust,  etc.,  over  a  prolonged 
period,  and  although  he  is  now  no  longer  in 
physical  danger  we  generally  find  that  he  is 
still  very  strenuously  repressing  his  previous 
fears  and  all  incidents  connected  with  them. 
He  refuses  to  discuss  the  war,  and  more  partic- 
ularly dislikes  any  reference  of  his  own  personal 
experiences.  If  he  is  asked  why  he  will  not 
discuss  these  with  his  friends,  he  will  probably 
say  that  it  thoroughly  upsets  him  or  makes  him 
ill  in  different  ways.  Here  we  have  to  make  use 
of  what  is  known  as  "  abreaction."  The  patient 
must  be  made  to  talk  daily  for  at  least  half  an 
hour,  and  preferably  longer,  of  his  own  worst 
experiences.  He  must  not  try  to  avoid  them, 
but  to  face  them  in  every  detail,  and  the  fact 
must  be  pointed  out  to  him  that  at  the  beginning 
he  may  be  very  emotional  and  upset  by  such 
conversations,  and  that  this  is,  in  fact,  a  good 
sign,   for  he  is.  so  to  speak,  gradually  allowing 

*Ki"tic    materia!    i?  frequently  to  be  found    in   iJv.hp  cases  aUo. 


174  THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES— (Continued) 

the  emotions  natural  to  the  situations  which 
he  is  discussing  to  be  worked  off. 

It  will  be  found  that  these  battle-dreams 
which  are  so  common  in  occurence  begin  almost 
immediately  to  diminish  in  frequency  as  soon  as 
the  conversation  upon  his  experiences  has 
begun,  and  as  a  rule  at  the  end  of  about  three 
weeks  they  have  almost  entirely  ceased.  It  is 
quite  true  that  in  some  instances,  at  this  period, 
the  battle-dreams  do  not  cease,  but  change 
somewhat  in  their  character,  and  under  these 
circumstances  they  probably  refer  to  something 
other  than  his  actual  war  experiences.  In  other 
words,  his  anxiety  neurosis  may  have  a  con- 
siderable reference  to  other  repressed  emotions. 
Indeed,  one  frequently  finds  that  there  is  a 
erotic  as  well  as  a  war  basis  for  the  anxiety 
neurosis  in  question. 

Other  accessory  treatment  is  often  advisable 
in  these  neuroses.  Concentration  and  memory 
exercises  are  of  great  assistance  :  exercises 
for  the  relaxation  of  muscles  are  also  very 
valuable.  I  have  pointed  out  that  the  breathing 
is  often  of  costal  character,  and  here  exercises 
in  abdominal  respiration  are  of  great  value, 
not  only  in  relieving  the  general  condition,  but 
also  effecting  an  improvement  in  cases  where 
stammering  is  a  marked  complaint. 

In  one  or  two  instances  I  have  found  that  no 


THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES— (Continued)   175 

amount  of  persuasion  would  induce  a  patient 
to  use  his  diaphragm,  and  in  these  eases  I  have 
used  adhesive  strapping,  and  have  strapped  the 
patient's  thorax  and  clavicles  in  the  position 
of  forced  expiration.  He  is  then  obliged  at 
once  to  use  his  diaphragm,  and  may  be  left 
in  this  condition  for  two  or  three  days  until  the 
habit  is  established.  Suggestion  may  be  used 
for  curing  the  insomnia  and  relieving  the  head- 
ache, and  there  are  certain  drugs  which  may 
also  be  used  with  advantage.  I  have  analysed 
a  good  many  of  these  anxiety  neuroses  of  war, 
and  in  almost  all  instances  have  found  an  ab- 
normal unconscious  homo-sexual  constituent, 
which  has  been  stimulated  by  the  patient's 
experiences. 

I  pointed  out  that  a  large  number  of  these 
cases  had  a  raised  blood  pressure,  and  small 
doses  of  nitro-glycerine  given  every  night  before 
retiring  to  bed  serve  to  reduce  this  somewhat, 
and,  by  reducing  it,  to  relieve  the  patient's 
headache  and  increase  his  possibilities  of  sleep- 
ing. In  cases  where  the  blood  pressure  is  more 
than  40mm.  above  the  normal,  1  generally  find 
a  history  of  recent  constipation,  with  probable 
lower  bowel  infection  causing  auto-intoxication. 
I  rind  a  course  of  senna  and  vegetable  charcoal 
of  the  greatest  benefit  in  such  cases  in  reducing 
the    blood    pressure.      I     follow     this    up    with 


176  THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES— (Continued) 

nitroglycerine.  For  localised  sweating  of  a 
pronounced  character,  a  lotion  containing  a  little 
belladonna  is  frequently  of  service,  and  if  this 
be  gradually  reduced  in  strength  it  will  often 
remain  just  as  efficacious,  as  a  large  element  of 
suggestion  enters  into  the  case  once  the  patient 
has  found  the  value  of  the  lotion. 

Neurasthenia. — As  I  have  already  stated, 
this  is  a  much  abused  term.  True  neurasthenia 
is  a  comparatively  rare  complaint.  It  has  a 
very  definite  syndrome  of  symptoms,  and  but 
few  physical  signs  of  a  definite  nature. 

The  actual  causative  factor  of  neurasthenia 
is  by  no  means  clear  to  me.  I  am  not  at  all 
sure  that  it  should  be  classed  as  a  pure  functional 
disease.  Freud  and  other  writers  state  that 
neurasthenia  is  always  due  to  sexual  excess,  and 
more  particularly  to  excessive  masturbation. 
Personally,  I  doubt  this  fact.  I  have  not  found 
it  by  any  means  constantly  at  the  foundation  of 
cases  I  have  gone  into  very  thoroughly.  Other 
writers  are  inclined  to  view  neurasthenia  as 
due  to  a  definite  auto-intoxication,  either  from 
the  intestines  or  from  disturbed  secretions  of  the 
ductless  glands.  To  my  mind  the  aetiology 
is  by  no  means  sufficiently  clear  for  us  to  be 
dogmatic,  especially  since  two  important  phys- 
ical factors  are  often  found  in  conjunction 
with  neurasthenia,  namely,  great  loss  of  weight 


THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES     (Continued)   177 

and  a  dilated  stomach.  Probably  both  schools 
of  thought  arc  correct.  There  may  be  more 
than  one  cause,  or  they  may  act  in  combination. 

Characteristics  of  Neurasthenia. — The  patient 
complains  of  excessive  fatigue  on  any  exertion, 
whether  mental  or  physical,  and  after  a  time 
the  mere  thought  of  effort  may  exhaust  the 
patient  completely  in  advanced  cases.  He  may 
have  headaches,  generally  occipital,  but  more 
frequently  he  complains  of  a  sense  of  pressure 
on  the  skull,  particularly  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
the  vertex.  There  may  also  be  indefinite  spinal 
pain  or  weakness,  and  a  common  complaint  is  of 
a  peculiar  "  wriggling  "  sensation  in  the  occipital 
region  or  over  the  cervical  spine.  Insomnia 
is  another  occasional  complaint,  but  this  is  by  no 
means  frequent  :  in  advanced  cases  the  powers 
of  memory  and  concentration  are  impaired, 
and  there  is  loss  of  self  confidence.  On  exertion 
the  patient  may  break  into  a  profuse  perspiration. 

Signs. — The  muscles  are  generally  flaccid  : 
the  deep  reflexes  are  sluggish  or  even  sometimes 
absent  :  the  blood  pressure  is  usually  low  for 
the  patient's  age  and  general  condition.  Too 
much  attention  should  not,  however,  be  paid  to 
the  deep  reflexes  or  to  the  blood  pressure,  as  the 
patient  often  has  some  other  disturbing  element 
in  his  conditio  m  :  1  his  may  be  eit  her  <  if  a  physical 
nature,    or    quite    commonlv    he    may    have    a 


178  THE   FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES- (Continued) 

superimposed  anxiety  neurosis.  Marked  gen- 
eral asthenia  with  loss  of  weight,  amounting 
frequently  to  two  or  three  stones  is  common. 
Very  frequently  the  patient  complains  of  flatu- 
lence and  abdominal  discomfort,  and  exam- 
ination will  show  considerable  dilatation  of  the 
stomach.  The  patient  frequently  has  hypochon- 
driacal ideas  but  he  has  no  phobias  nor  obsessions. 
Indeed,  the  hypochondriacal  ideas  are  not 
to  be  wondered  at,  since  his  loss  of  weight  and 
gastric  trouble  together  with  his  other  symp- 
toms are  enough  to  suggest  many  diseases  to 
any  normal  mind,  especially  if  he  passes  through 
the  hands  of  a  physician  who  states  that  he  can 
find  nothing  wrong  with  him. 

It  will  be  observed  that  neurasthenia  has 
certain  points  in  common  with  a  mild  anxiety 
neurosis,  as  also  with  many  organic  diseases 
such  as  chronic  interstitial^nephritis,  glycosuria, 
malignant  disease,  and  other  debilitating  lesions, 
and  an  extremely  careful  examination  should, 
of  course,  be  made  before  a  diagnosis  of  neuras- 
thenia is  made. 

Treatment. — With  regard  to  treatment  of 
neurasthenia  all  forms  of  ps3Tchotherapy  give 
very  unsatisfactory  results.  If  there  is  a  histor}- 
of  any  excessive  sexual  action  this  must,  of 
course,  be  remedied.  A  short  analysis  is  often 
useful,  because  an  anxiety  hysteria  is  frequently 


THE    FUNCTIONAL    DISEASES— (Continued)   170 

present  :  moreover,  a  short  analysis  reveals  the 
patient's  likes  and  dislikes,  and  enables  one  to 
map  out  the  right  kind  of  occupation  for  the 
patient  during  treatment.  In  any  case  the 
analysis  is  of  some  benefit  to  the  patient,  for  it 
invariably  improves  the  mental  balance  and 
methods  of  utilising  energy  in  any  persons, 
however  normal  they  may  appear  to  be.  The 
main  treatment  in  neurasthenia  should  consist 
in  rest,  change  of  company  and  abode,  regulated 
exercise  and  light  but  enjoyable  employment. 
As  a  rule  such  treatment  should  occupy  at  least 
six  months.  I  do  not  advocate  the  patient 
being  sent  to  the  sea-side,  as  this  is  often  too 
stimulating  :  rather,  I  prefer  a  country  village. 
In  cases  where  there  is  any  gastric  disturbance, 
special  importance  should  be  attached  to  diet, 
and  if  necessary  suitable  drugs  should  be 
administered.  The  Weir  Mitchell  treatment 
also  often  gives  excellent  results  it  properly 
carried  out.* 


•  "An  Outline  of  Psy«  hothr-i  ipy"  Paul  Boustield,  May,  1919. 
A  !m  tun' «l>-li  ■  <  r,  (I  I  of  ore  the  Deputy  Com  mis  i  .n>-r>  of  Midie-.l 
Service — reprinted   Mtdical    IJieis   M  iy    7th    14th    and  .list,   1919 


CHAPTER    X 

Technique     of     Psycho-Analysis 

Psycho-analysis  has  as  its  object  the  following 
up  of  trains  of  ideas  and  thoughts  from  the 
conscious  into  the  unconscious  mind  in  such  a 
manner  that  repressed  complexes  may  be  re- 
vealed   and    brought    into    full    consciousness. 

With  a  selected  starting-point  the  patient 
must  give  free  associations.  By  free  associa- 
tions we  mean  ideas  which  come  into  his  mind 
when  he  fixes  his  attention  on  the  starting-point — 
such  ideas  being  entirely  uncontrolled  either  by 
criticism  or  resistance  on  his  part.  Secondary 
ideas  are  again  obtained  from  these  first,  and  so 
on.  As  would  be  supposed,  however,  it  is  by 
no  means  easy  for  a  patient  to  get  rid  of  his  own 
resistance  and  his  tendency  to  criticise.  For 
the  purpose  of  demonstrating  in  some  measure 
what  we  mean  by  free  association,  1  will  first 
describe  shortly  what  is  known  as  "  Jung's 
Association  Method." 

i.  The  Association  Method. — This  method 
is  based  upon  the   fact  that    for  every  stimulus 

180 


TECHNIQUE    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS    181 

we  receive  a  suitable  reaction  is  forthcoming; 
that  should  the  stimulus  touch  upon  some 
unpleasant  or  repressed  material  in  our  minds, 
we  shall  react  in  a  different  manner  from  that 
in  which  we  should  react  were  the  stimulus  to 
touch  neutral  or  colourless  material  in  our 
mind.  For  example,  if  a  highly  nervous  woman 
saw  a  mouse  on  the  floor  she  might  instantly 
shriek  and  draw  her  feet  up  on  to  a  chair  ; 
whereas  if  she  saw  a  piece  of  paper  on  the  floor 
she  would  do  nothing  of  the  kind.  In  the  one 
case  the  stimulus  touches  a  complex  which  is 
unpleasant  and  evokes  an  emotion,  in  the  other 
no  emotion   is  evoked. 

In  Jung's  association  method,  instead  of 
using  a  large  number  of  actual  situations 
in  order  to  find  out  which  of  them  will 
evoke  emotion  in  a  patient  he  tests 
them  with  a  large  number  of  words,  among 
which  are  certain  words  which  may  stimulate 
nearly  every  possible  emotion.  A  list  of  words, 
generally  about  one  hundred  is  taken  :  a  large 
number  of  them  are  quite  commonplace  and 
should  not  act  in  any  way  as  an  abnormal 
stimulus  to  anyone.  Scattered  through  these, 
however,  are  carefully  chosen  words  which  are 
likely  to  touch  upon  one  or  some  of  the  com- 
plexes of  the  patient  and  arouse  the  emotion 
which    has   been   repressed   in   connection   with 


182    TECHNIQUE    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 

that  complex.  Each  word  is  read  out  slowly 
to  the  patient,  who  is  instructed  to  give  in 
reply  the  first  word  that  comes  into  his  head 
in  association  with  the  word  read  out.  He  is 
further  informed  that  he  must  not  criticise  nor 
resist  :  that  if  the  word  that  occurs  to  him  is 
vulgar  or  apparently  not  strictly  to  the  point 
it  will  make  no  difference — he  must  still  say  that 
word.  Now  these  words  act,  though  in  a  less 
powerful  way,  exactly  as  a  similar  situation 
would  act,  and  they  serve  as  stimuli  to  evoke 
repressed  material  in  the  mind.  An  innocuous 
word  like  "  ink  "  would  be  readily  answered  by 
such  a  word  as  "  pen,"  but  to  a  patient  who  was 
terrified  of  mice  the  word  "  mouse  "  would  call 
up  a  picture  in  which  the  mouse  figured.  Al- 
though of  course  the  patient  would  not  react 
absolutely  in  the  same  way  as  in  the  situation 
just  described,  nevertheless  he  would  react  in 
such  a  way  that  it  would  be  noticeable  cither 
from  his  manner,  or  from  some  slight  hesitation 
timeable  in  fractions  of  a  second,  or  from  some 
slight  internal  struggle  which  could  be  regis- 
tered on  a  galvanometer.  Thus  in  reading  over  this 
list  of  words  each  reply  of  the  patient's  is  timed 
by  a  stop  watch,  reading  in  fifths  of  a  second  or 
in  some  other  suitable  manner.  His  bearing 
and  manner  arc  closely  watched,  and  any  faulty 
or   unusual   methods   of   answering   are   noted, 


TECHNIQUE    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS    183 

When  the  list  has  been  read  through  once  and 
his  associations  written  down,  as  a  general  rule 
one  repeats  the  process  and  asks  the  patient 
where  possible  to  repeat  the  same  word  as 
before,  but  where  not  possible  again  to  give  the 
first  word  that  comes  into  his  head.  It  will 
often  be  found  that  a  certain  proportion  of  his 
associations  are  different  on  this  second 
reading,  and  the  stimulus  words  to  which 
he  reacts  differently  are  noted,  for  these  are 
important. 

It  might  be  thought  that  a  critical 
— that  is  to  him  an  unpleasant  stimulus  word — 
to  which  it  took  him  several  seconds  to  find  an 
association  would  register  itself  more  in- 
delibly on  his  memory  than  a  neutral  word — a 
word  that  awakes  no  particular  memories  in  his 
mind,  but  this  is  not  the  case.  The  inward 
perturbation,  however  slight,  prevents  him  from 
fixing  his  attention  on  the  association  he  gives, 
and  as  a  rule  it  will  be  found  that  the  stimulus 
words  that  are  to  him  critical  words,  are  the 
oiks  to  which  he  fails  to  react  twice  in  the  same 
manner.  So  infallible  is  this  method  that  by  a 
physician  who  has  practised  it  the  repressed 
complexes  of  any  normal  person  can  be  detected  : 
however  normal  the  person  he  cannot  prevent 
his  reactions  to  any  critical  stimuli  which  touch 
upon  repressed  conflicts.     By  this  method  aim- 


184    TECHNIQUE    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSTS 

inals  can  be  made  to  reveal  their  guilt  :  indeed, 
Jung  gives  an  excellent  example  of  this  in  his 
work  on  Analytical  Psychology. 

Now  as  to  the  more  detailed  work  in  Jung's 
method.  The  average  reaction  time  found  for 
the  majority  of  persons  is  2.4  seconds  per  word. 
In  some  cases  one  will  find  that  the  patient 
habitually  takes  very  much  longer  to  react 
to  every  word,  whether  it  touch  a  complex  or 
not.  This  shows  that  the  patient  finds  diffi- 
culty in  adapting  himself  to  the  physician — 
that  a  high  degree  of  disturbance  in  adjustment 
is  present,  and  that  in  a  certain  sense  he  is  but 
imperfectly  adapted  to  reality.  Again  we  shall 
observe  two  chief  ways  in  which  patients  react  ; 
they  may  react  with  outer  and  sound  associa- 
tions rather  than  with  inner  associations,  thus 
following  lines  of  least  resistance  by  reactions 
with  easy  speech  combinations  :  in  these  pa- 
tients there  is  a  disturbance  of  attention  producing 
this  shallow  reaction  :  or  others  may  react 
with  inner  associations,  and  in  these  we  may 
conclude  there  is  concentration  of  the  attention. 

Again,  many  persons — especially  those  of  a 
neurotic  type,  will  react  with  more  than  one 
word  :  not  satisfied  with  following  out  instruc- 
tions, they  give  several  words  or  explanatory 
sentences  :  they  are  unable  to  suppress  the 
ideas  which  occur  to  them.     By  their  desire  to 


Technique  of  psycho-analysis  1S5 

supplement  they  show  a  desire  to  give  the 
physician  more  than  he  wants  and  make  great 
efforts  to  find  further  associations  so  that  a 
completely  satisfactory  answer  may  be  given. 
Jung  has  shown  that  this  signifies  that  such 
persons  have  a  constant  tendency  to  give  others 
more  feeling  than  is  required  or  expected  :  while 
Freud  has  shown  that  this  is  a  method  of  com- 
pensating for  an  inner  want  of  satisfaction  and 
voidness  of  feeling.  It  is  one  of  the  character- 
istics of  many  hysterical  persons,  who  allow 
themselves  to  be  carried  away  by  everything, 
to  attach  themselves  to  everything,  to  promise 
mueh  and  to  perform  little.  Another  character- 
istic of  this  type  of  person  is  a  tendency  to  take 
everything  personally,  and  to  defend  himself  as 
though  against  being  misunderstood  by  careful 
explanation.  Thus  to  the  stimulus  word  "  to 
pray  "  such  a  person,  instead  of  replying  by 
perhaps  the  one  word  "  church,"  would  say  : 
"  church  ;  God  ;  one  should  not  pray  for 
material  things  !  "  or  to  such  a  word  as  "  marry" 
he  might  reply  :  "  wife  ;  husband  ;  children  ; 
I    am    not    thinking    of    being    married." 

Yet  another  point  to  be  noticed,  im- 
perially, in  carrying  out  this  method,  is 
the  repetition  of  certain  stimulus  words  by 
the  patient  as  if  he  did  not  quite  under- 
stand    or     had     not     heard     corrcctlv.       This 


1 86   TECHNIQUE   OF   PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 

arises  from  the  same  motive  as  that  which 
induces  him  to  give  elaborate  explanation  of  his 
reaction  to  the  words  that  are  for  him  critical : 
it  means  that  he  is  treating  the  word  as  if  it 
has  some  personal  reference — as  if  it  were  a 
difficult  personal  question.  It  will  often  be 
found  in  going  over  the  list  of  words  that  the 
patient  reacts  to  many  of  them  by  using  the 
same  reaction  word  ;  when  this  word  recurs 
frequently  it  is  sure  to  have  some  significance 
and  is  worth  investigation.  For  instance,  Jung 
quotes  a  case  in  which  the  patient  repeated  the 
word  "  short  "  a  great  many  times,  and  often  in 
places  where  it  had  no  obvious  connection.  He 
could  give  no  reason  for  this  repetition.  From 
experience  Jung  knew  that  such  predicates  al- 
ways relate  either  to  the  test  person  himself  or 
to  one  very  near  to  him,  and  assumed  that  by 
this  word  "  short  "  he  designated  himself  and 
that  it  touched  on  an  unpleasant  complex. 
'  The  test  person  was  of  very  small  stature. 
He  was  the  youngest  of  four  brothers  who  in 
contrast  to  himself  were  all  tall.  He  was  always 
the  '  child  '  of  the  family.  He  was  nicknamed 
'  short  '  and  treated  by  all  as  the  '  little  one.' 
This  resulted  in  a  total  loss  of  self-confidence. 
Although  he  was  intelligent,  and  despite  long 
study,  he  could  not  decide  to  present  himself  for 
examination,  but  finally  became  impotent  and 


TECHNIQUE    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS    i$7 

merged  into  a  psychosis  in  which  whenever  he 
was  alone  he  took  delight  in  walking  about  in  his 
room  on  his  toes  in  order  to  appear  taller.  The 
word  '  short  '  therefore  stood  to  him  for  a  great 
many  painful  experiences.  This  is  usually  the 
case  with  these  so-called  '  perseverated  '  words  ; 
they  always  denote  something  of  importance 
in  the  individual  psychology  of  the  test  person." 

It  often  happens  that  so  much  emotion  is 
evoked  by  one  of  the  critical  stimulus  words  that 
it  is  carried  on  to  the  next  word  or  two,  although 
these  may  be  neutral,  and  we  may  find  either 
that  the  reaction  time  for  these  neutral  words 
is  longer  than  would  be  expected,  or  on  the 
second  repetition  a  different  reaction  word  may 
be  reproduced  to  them  as  well  as  to  the  critical 
word  that  preceded  them. 

Jung  divides  individuals  into  three  principal 
types  as  regards  their  reactions  to  his  association 
method  :  firstly,  an  objective  type,  or  those  whose 
reactions  are  undisturbed  ;  secondly,  a  complex 
type,  or  those  who  show  disturbance  in  the  way 
mentioned  above  and  which  is  caused  by  the 
stimulation  of  the  repressed  material  of  their 
complex  or  complexes  ;  thirdly,  a  definition 
type,  or  those  who  always  give  an  explanation  or 
definition  of  the  stimulus  word.  For  instance 
the  third  type  would  reply  to  the  stimulus  word 
"  tree,"    "  fruit  ;  "     to    "  table,"     "  a    piece    of 


id8    TECHNIQUE    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 

household  furniture  ;  "  to  "  promenade  "  "an 
activity  ;  "  to  "father"  "  chief  of  the  family." 
Such  replies  are  generally  found  in  stupid  people, 
and  are  quite  usual  from  imbeciles  ;  but  they  are 
also  given  by  persons  who  are  not  stupid,  but 
who  do  not  wish  to  be  taken  for  stupid  ;  the  test 
person  is  of  the  opinion  that  it  is  an  examination 
in  intelligence  and  therefore  he  directs  his 
attention  to  the  significance  of  the  stimulus  word 
and  by  so  doing  makes  his  associations  similar 
to  those  of  an  idiot.  All  idiots,  however,  do  not 
react  with  definitions  ;  probably  only  those 
react  in  this  way  who  have  a  secret  wish  to 
appear  smarter  than  they  are — i.e.,  those  to 
whom  their  very  stupidity  is  painful.  Jung 
calls  this  complex  the  "  intelligence  complex." 
Persons  with  an  intelligence  complex  are  usually 
unnatural  and  constrained  ;  they  wish  to  be 
more  than  they  are,  to  exert  more  influence 
than  they  are  able  to.  They  use  high-sounding 
quotations,  their  replies  are  stilted  and  contain 
foreign  words  and  other  intellectual  ornaments, 
and  this  to  impress  others  with  their  intelligence 
and  to  compensate  for  their  own  painful  feeling 
of  stupidity. 

This  definition  type  is  closely  allied  to  what 
Jung  calls  the  predicate  type,  where  personal 
judgment  is  expressed  upon  every  stimulus 
word    thus  :     flower,    pretty  ;     money,     conve- 


Technique  of  psycho-analysis  i&) 

nicnt  ;  animal,  ugly;  knife,  dangerous;  death, 
ghastly.  In  the  definition  type  the  intellectual 
significance  of  the  stimulus  word  is  prominent, 
in  the  predicate  type  its  emotional  significance. 

Some  predicate  types  show  great  exaggeration 
in  their  reactions  such  as  :  pain,  horrible  ; 
to  sing,  heavenly  ;  mother,  ardently  adored  ; 
nice,  holy. 

In  the  definition  type  we  have  pointed  out 
that  an  intellectual  make-up  is  simulated,  and 
that  it  really  conceals  a  lack  of  intelligence. 
In  the  predicate  type  the  more  emotional  ex- 
pression conceals  or  compensates  for  emotional 
deficiency.  Jung  shows  this  conclusion  in  a 
most  interesting  way  in  the  following  :  "  On 
investigating  the  influence  of  the  familiar  mileus 
on  the  association  type  it  was  found  that  young 
people  seldom  possess  a  predicate  type,  but  that 
this  type  increases  in  frequency  with  advancing 
age.  In  women  it  increases  a  little  after  the 
fortieth  year,  in  men  after  the  sixtieth.  This 
is  the  precise  time  when,  owing  to  the  deficiency 
of  sexuality,  there  actually  occurs  considerable 
emotional  loss.  If  a  test  person  evinces  a 
distinct  predicate  type  it  may  be  inferred  that  a 
marked  internal  deficiency  is  thereby  compen- 
sated. One  cannot,  however,  reason  conversely 
that  an  inner  emotional  deficiency  must  produce 

*  lhe.se  examples  ar«  t-ikm   from  June's  Analytic '1  IV.choloxy. 


190    TECHNIQUE    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 

a  predicate  type.  A  predicate  type  can  also 
betray  itself  through  external  behaviour,  as, 
for  example,  through  a  particular  affectation, 
or  through  enthusiastic  exclamations  and  the 
constrained-sounding  language  so  often  observed 
in  society." 

With  regard  to  the  complex  type  there  is  in 
these  a  reference  to  our  definition  and  predicate 
types,  but  while  these  show  a  positive  tendency 
to  exert  a  definite  influence  on  the  physician 
the  complex  type  show  a  tendency  to  conceal 
the  complex  not  only  from  the  physician  but 
from  themselves  as  well. 

The  following  is  the  list  of  words  I  generally 
use.  They  are  largely  based  upon  Jung's  own 
list  with  alterations  made  where  the  translated 
word  does  not  bear  the  same  significance  or  has 
an  awkward  sound  in  the  English  language. 
Additional  words  are  often  interspersed  when 
I  have  occasion  to  suspect  the  presence  of  any 
particular  complex  and  wish  to  get  confirmation 
of  this  from  the  patient : 


I 

head. 

7- 

ship. 

2 

green. 

8. 

to  pay. 

3 

water. 

9- 

window 

4 

to  sing. 

10. 

friendly 

5 

dead. 

ii. 

to  cook 

0 

long. 

12. 

to  ask. 

TECHNIQUE    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS    iqi 


13 

.     cold. 

42 

toolish. 

M 

stem. 

43 

paper. 

15 

.     to  dance. 

44 

despise. 

16 

.     village. 

45 

.     finger. 

17 

.     late. 

46 

expensive. 

18 

sick. 

47 

bird. 

19 

pride. 

48 

.     to  fall. 

20 

.     table. 

49 

book. 

21 

ink. 

5° 

unjust. 

22 

angry. 

5i 

frog. 

23 

needle. 

52 

to  part. 

24 

to  swim. 

53 

hunger. 

25 

voyage. 

54 

white. 

26 

blue. 

55 

child. 

-^7 

lamp. 

5o 

to  take  care 

28 

to  sin. 

57 

lead  pencil. 

29 

bread. 

58 

sad. 

30 

rich. 

59 

plum. 

31 

tree. 

60 

to  marry. 

32 

to   prick. 

01 

house. 

33 

pity. 

62 

dear. 

34 

yellow. 

03 

glass. 

35 

mountain. 

(H 

to  quarrel. 

36 

to  die. 

05 

fur. 

37 

salt. 

66 

big. 

38 

new. 

(>7 

carrot. 

39 

custom. 

68 

to  paint. 

40. 

to  pray. 

69 

part. 

4i- 

money. 

70. 

old. 

ig2 


tl 

7XHNlOUE    OF 

PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 

7i- 

flower. 

9i 

.     to  choose 

7*> 

to  beat. 

92 

hay. 

73- 

box. 

93 

pure. 

74- 

wild. 

94 

.     contented 

75- 

family. 

95 

ridicule. 

76. 

to  wash. 

96 

to  sleep. 

77- 

cow. 

97 

month. 

78. 

friend. 

98 

nice. 

79- 

luck. 

99 

woman. 

80. 

lie. 

100 

to  abuse. 

81. 

behaviour. 

IOI 

red. 

82. 

narrow. 

102 

to  fight. 

§3- 

brother. 

103 

boy. 

84. 

to  fear. 

10I 

dish. 

85. 

stork. 

105 

to  love. 

86. 

false. 

106. 

number . 

87. 

anxiety. 

107 

girl. 

88. 

to  kiss. 

108 

tired. 

89. 

bride. 

109 

ball. 

90. 

door. 

no 

to  tear. 

2.  General  Management  of  Analysis. — 
From  the  foregoing  something  will  have  been 
gathered  as  to  what  is  meant  by  free  association, 
which  is  the  essential  factor  in  psycho-analysis. 
The  physician  does  not,  however,  start  at  once 
by  asking  the  patient  for  free  associations.  It 
is  necessary  first  to  establish  some  sort  of  rapport 
between  himself  and  his  patient,  and  to  ascertain 
something  about  his  conscious  mind  before  en- 


TECHNIQUE    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS    193 

deavouring    to    bring    up    material    from    the 
unconscious.     One  first  gets  all  the  information 
possible  about  his  symptoms  :   when  they  came 
on  first,  when  there  have  been  exacerbations, 
and  when  the  patient   has  been  more  or  less 
free  from  them.     At  the  same  time  one  asks 
him  whether  he  can  ascribe  any  of  his  symptoms 
to   any   definite   happenings   connected  closely 
with    them,    and    one    ascertains    as    much    as 
possible   of   the    patient's   occupation    and   en- 
vironment at  the  onset  of  his  illness  and  during 
exacerbations.     This  generally  fills  up  the  first 
visit  to  the  patient,  which  occupies  about  an 
hour.     On  the  next  visit  I  get  from  the  patient 
the  critical   dates  in   his  life  history,   together 
with  other  facts  :    such  as  the  respective  ages 
of  his  parents,    the  dates  upon  which  he  went 
to    various    schools,    became    engaged    to    be 
married,  was  married,  the  date  of  the  death  of 
either  of  his   parents,   the  number  of  brothers 
and  sisters  and  their  ages,  the  general  history 
of  his  health  throughout  life  and  something  of 
his  early  life  and  environment.      In  some  cases, 
but  by  no  means  in  all,  I  ask  for  something  of 
the  sexual  history  of  the  patient,  of  his  earliest 
recollections  of  this,  and  any  habits  of  body  or 
of  mind  which   he  may   have   formed.     Before 
referring    to    the   sexual    history,    however,    we 
must  be  careful  to  sum  up  the  general  attitude 


194    TECHNIQUE    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 

of  the  patient,  for  it  is  by  no  means  the  wisest 
thing  to  do,  and  in  many  instances  it  is  better 
left  to  reveal  itself  bit  by  bit  during  the  analysis. 
However,  in  cases  where  it  is  advisable  to  do 
this  we  may  succeed  in  shortening  the  analysis 
somewhat,  and  in  reducing  the  resistance  of  the 
patient  to  further  revelations.  In  the  case  of 
well-educated  and  intelligent  patients  it  is  well 
to  explain  at  this  stage  something  of  the  nature 
of  analysis  and  the  constitution  of  the  uncon- 
scious mind,  and  to  point  out  what  we  mean  by 
repressed  conflicts  and  by  infantile  sexuality. 
At  the  same  time  it  is  essential  to  make  it  clear 
that  we  are  not  dealing  with  these  matters  from 
the  point  of  view  of  right  and  wrong,  but  in  the 
scientific  spirit  of  an  unbiassed  investigation  : 
and  indeed,  that  we  do  not  regard  the  patient 
as  responsible  for  his  repressed  conflicts,  but 
that  they  are  the  outcome  of  his  early  environ- 
ment and  education,  which,  of  course,  were 
outside  his  control.  It  is  as  well  to  point  out 
at  the  same  time  that  he  is  not  alone  in  pos- 
sessing displaced  or  repressed  infantile  forms 
of  sexuality  :  that  the  same  may  be  true  of 
even  normal  people,  and  that  the  only  difference 
between  him  and  a  normal  person  lies  in  the 
degree  of  repression  on  the  one  hand  and  the 
power  of  resistance,  the  amount  of  sublimation, 
etc.,  on  the  other.     By  having  a  general  chat 


TECHNIQUE    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS    195 

on  these  lines  we  shall  put  the  patient  much 
more  at  his  ease,  and  diminish  to  some  extent 
the  resistance  in  yielding  the  superficial  matter 
which  will  appear  first. 

Our  next  step  is  to  begin  the  analysis  proper. 
Personally,  I  very  often  begin  with  the  word 
association  test,  not  only  because  it  gives  an 
insight  into  some  of  the  chief  complexes,  but 
because  it  introduces  the  patient  in  an  easy 
manner  to  free  association,  and  accustoms  him 
to  understanding  what  is  meant  by  it.  In 
carrying  out  the  analysis  one  wishes  the  patient 
to  forget  as  far  as  possible  the  presence  of  the 
physician  :  for  this  purpose  he  should  be  made 
to  sit  in  a  comfortable  chair  or  to  recline  upon 
a  couch  so  placed  that,  while  the  physician  can 
watch  the  patient's  face  and  manner,  the  latter 
cannot  study  the  physician.  It  is  also  advisable 
that  disturbing  noises  or  other  stimuli  from 
without  should  be  as  far  as  possible  excluded. 
The  patient's  attention  is  then  directed  to  a 
word,  as  in  the  above-mentioned  association 
method,  or  to  the  first  onset  of  his  neurosis, 
or  to  some  habitual  action  of  his,  or  indeed  to 
almost  anything  that  will  serve  as  a  starting- 
point,  and  he  is  asked  to  say  whatever  comes 
into  his  mind  when  he  thinks  of  this,  without 
prejudice,  without  criticism  and  without  resist- 
ance.     He  is  encouraged  to  talk  and  to  take 


196    TECHNIQUE    OF    PSYCHO-ANAYLS1S 

bis  own  line  of  thought,  and  must  not  be  forced 
by  the  physician  into  the  particular  path  which 
the  latter  thinks  will  lead  to  what  is  at  the 
basis  of  the  neurosis.  If  he  wanders  too  far 
away  from  the  point  he  may  from  time  to  time 
be  recalled  to  the  starting-point,  or  his  attention 
may  be  directed  to  something  he  has  associated 
with  it  and  further  associations  may  be  asked 
for,  but  care  should  be  taken  that  no  hint  is 
given  as  to  the  inner  meaning  of  any  statements 
the  patient  may  make  unless  a  point  is  reached 
where  he  has  given  such  overwhelming  evidence 
of  what  is  present  in  his  unconscious  mind  that 
he  cannot  fail  to  recognise  the  truth  of  its 
existence  when  it  is  put  before  him. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  psycho-analysis 
has  nothing  to  do  with  hypnotism  nor  suggestion, 
and  the  beginner  will  often  have  a  hard  task 
to  prevent  himself  from  giving  suggestions  to 
the  patient  which  he  thinks  will  hurry  on  the 
analysis  since  to  him  certain  complexes,  re- 
pressions or  fixations  have  become  abundantly 
clear.  It  must  be  remembered  that  as  a  rule 
the  analysis  cannot  be  hurried  :  it  must  be 
allowed  to  take  its  course,  except  in  rare  in- 
stances, which  the  analyst  will  only  recognise 
after  he  has  had  considerable  experience. 

Now  the  royal  road  to  the  patient's 
unconscious    is    by    means    of    the    analysis 


TECHNIQUE    OF    PSYCHO-ANAYLSIS     197 

of  dreams,  for,  as  we  have  already  stated, 
dreams,  amongst  other  things,  fulfil  the  patient's 
repressed  wishes  in  a  disguised  form.  We 
therefore  direct  the  patient  after  the  first  three 
or  four  sittings  to  remember  his  dreams  as  far 
as  possible  and  to  relate  them  on  each  occasion 
on  which  he  visits  us.  If  he  says  that  he  does 
not  dream  it  is  best  to  inform  him  that  we 
probably  all  dream,  but  that  some  like  himself 
do  not  remember  their  dreams  upon  awakening, 
and  that  if  he  goes  to  bed  with  the  firm  intention 
of  remembering  his  dreams  he  will  be  sure  to  do 
so.  This  expedient  will  be  found  as  a  general 
rule  to  produce  the  right  result.  It  is  as  well 
to  ask  the  patient  whether  he  remembers  any 
vivid  dreams  which  he  used  to  have  in  childhood 
or  which  have  recurred  repeatedly,  as  this  will 
convey  much  to  the  analyst,  and  will  be  useful 
for  comparative  purposes  at  a  later  stage. 
During  the  first  half  dozen  visits  or  so  I  ask  the 
patient  to  take  a  pencil  and  paper  to  bed  with 
him  and  to  write  down  his  dreams  as  fully  as 
possible,  as  it  is  as  well  to  keep  a  record  of  these 
early  dreams  also  for  future  reference.  I  do 
not,  however,  let  him  read  these  dreams  out  to 
me,  but  make  him  repeat  them  to  me,  while  I 
preserve  a  written  copy.  One  often  asks  the 
patient  to  repeat  the  dream  twice,  because  there 
are  often  points  of  difference  between  the  two 

0 


198    TECHNIQUE    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 

versions  :     slight   though   they   may  be,   these 
points   of   difference   indicate   points   of  strong 
resistance  in  the  latent  meaning  of  the  dream, 
and  to  these  the  analysis  should  be  especially 
directed. 

One  of  the  reasons  why  a  beginner  at  analysis 
is  often  inclined  to  point  out  some  unmistakable 
revelation  of  infantile  sexuality  in  one  of  the 
patient's  early  dreams  is  that  he  is  afraid  the 
patient  may  not  have  another  dream  like  this 
one,  and  that  the  opportunity  which  appears  so 
suitable  may  not  come  again.  It  should  be 
borne  in  mind,  however,  that  any  infantile 
material  of  this  kind  which  has  not  become 
fully  conscious  to  the  patient  is  sure  to  reappear 
at  different  periods  when  that  particular  re- 
pressed conflict  is  stimulated,  and  that  if  it 
is  of  importance  in  the  neurosis  it  will  probably 
be  stimulated  pretty  frequently.  He  may  there- 
fore with  full  assurance  refrain  from  forcing 
his  interpretation  of  the  dream  upon  the  un- 
conscious patient,  with  the  knowledge  that 
when  the  right  time  comes  he  will  have  several 
dreams  in  further  corroboration  of  what  was 
evident  to  him  from  this  earliest  dream. 

The  Transference. — As  the  analysis  proceeds - 
a  change  will  be  noticed  in  the  demeanour  of 
the  patient.     The  ideas  that  come  to  the  surface 
will    be    projected    upon    the    physician  :     for 


TECHNIQUE    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS    199 

instance,  should  the  basis  of  the  neurosis  consist 
in  a  woman's  fixation  upon  her  father,  the 
physician  will  replace  the  father  in  the  patient's 
dream  and  the  repressed  erotic  impulses  will 
be  directed  towards  the  physician,  and,  since 
he  is  not  her  father  the  erotic  impulses  will 
probably  be  much  less  repressed  and  hidden  : 
or  again,  if  we  are  dealing  with  a  homosexual 
patient  in  like  manner  the  physician  becomes 
the  homosexual  aim  and  other  ideas  and  emotions 
are  projected  on  to  him.  This  transference  of 
the  repressed  infantile  material  may  take  place 
all  at  once  and  may  be  in  the  form  of  great  love 
or  its  opposite,  hate  :  or  it  may  take  place  as 
a  series  of  smaller  transferences  which  reveal 
individual  characteristics.  In  any  case  the 
transference  and  the  dreams  connected  with  it 
must  be  analysed  in  exactly  the  same  manner 
as  the  other  material,  the  physician  taking  care 
the  while  to  remain  quite  impersonal,  whatever 
tin1  attitude  of  the  patient  to  him  during  this 
period,  which  will  generally  be  found  to  be  quite 
short.  When,  however,  it  is  explained  to  him,  the 
patient  realises  that  the  impulses  and  emotions 
directed  towards  the  father  or  any  other  objeet 
of  his  repressed  infantile  affections  have  merely 
been  projected  upon  the  physician  as  substitute, 
and  during  the  analysis  which  brings  this  to  the 
surface   the   energy    behind   it    all   is   gradually 


200    TECHNIQUE    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 

re-transferred  to  legitimate  objects — in  other 
words — a  sublimation  is  effected.  The  uncon- 
scious conflicts  become  conscious  once  the 
patient  faces  facts  instead  of  harbouring  dis- 
torted fancies,  and  he  is  cured  of  his  neurotic 
symptoms. 

The  physician  should  throughout  the  analysis 
abstain  from  making  up  the  patient's  mind  or 
from  giving  much  advice,  and  while  his  attitude 
should  always  be  thoroughly  understanding 
and  sympathetic  he  should  refrain  from  personal 
intimacy,  and  more  especially  from  anything 
in  the  nature  of  physical  contact.  Personally 
I  never  even  shake  hands  with  my  patients 
until  they  are  cured  and  are  leaving  me.  More- 
over, should  the  physician  desire  to  give  examples 
or  illustrations  on  any  point  it  is  better  for  him 
not  to  select  these  from  his  own  life  or  experience, 
as  the  patient's  attention  is  then  likely  to  be 
taken  up  by  a  study  of  the  physician,  which 
wastes  time  and  does  not  help  on  the  analysis 
of  himself. 

One  of  the  essential  factors  in  psycho-analysis 
is  the  overcoming  of  the  resistances  which 
prevent  the  unpleasant  material  in  the  subject's 
mind  from  becoming  conscious.  It  is  often  a 
very  disagreeable  and  very  painful  process  to 
the  patient,  and  quite  as  much  benefit  appears  to 
accrue  to  the  patient  as  he  gradually  overcomes 


Technique  of  psycho  analysis   201 

this  resistance  as  accrues  from  the  transference  or 
any  other  part  of  the  analysis.  This  is  why  it 
is  of  little  use  to  tell  the  patient  what  has  been 
discovered  until  the  patient  has  himself  pro- 
duced such  evidence  that  he  can  actually  realise 
it  consciously.  As  has  already  been  stated 
the  experienced  analyst  can  often  see  in  a  very 
short  time  some  of  the  major  complexes  at  the 
root  of  a  patient's  trouble,  but  it  would  not  be 
of  the  slightest  use,  for  instance,  to  inform  a 
patient  that  he  had  an  Oedipus  complex  or  an 
anal-erotic  complex,  or  a  homosexual  complex. 
He  might  very  well  indeed  believe  one  and 
accept  it  as  a  fact,  but  accepting  that  as  a 
scientific  fact  would  have  caused  him  no  pain, 
would  have  removed  nothing  from  him  :  it 
would  merely  be  a  diagnosis  of  his  case.  The 
patient  must  be  made  to  discover  these  facts 
for  himself,  and  to  overcome  the  various  re- 
sistances which  prevented  them  from  becoming 
conscious.  I  will  give  an  example  of  what  I 
mean  on  rather  different  lines.  I  have  recently 
had  a  patient  who  had  completely  forgotten 
the  whole  of  his  previous  life.  He  had  been 
invalided  from  France  witli  shell-shock,  and 
when  his  parents  and  his  wife  visited  him  he 
had  no  recollection  of  ever  having  seen  them 
before,  but  accepted  various  statements  about 
them  and  about   himself,   and   rinallv  came  to 


202    TECHNIQUE    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 

live  a  fairly  normal  life,  having  been  told  a  good 
deal  of  his  past  history.  He  accepted  this  also, 
and  indeed  knew  it  to  be  true,  but,  as  he  in- 
formed me  at  his  first  visit,  although  he  knew 
it  to  be  true  he  did  not  realise  the  truth  by  any 
inner  consciousness — although  he  knew  of  past 
events  he  did  not  actually  remember  them. 
After  I  had  hypnotised  this  man  several  times 
and  during  hypnosis  had  put  him  through 
different  epochs  in  his  past  life  he  described  a 
totally  different  feeling.  He  now  remembered 
his  parents  and  realised  the  bond  between  him- 
self and  them,  where  previously  he  had  merely 
known  them  to  be  his  parents  :  he  now  re- 
membered facts  which  he  had  previously  been 
told  and  believed  in.  There  was  a  realisation 
in  his  mind  quite  different  from  the  previous 
knowledge  and  it  is  a  similar  realisation  which 
must  be  sought  for  in   psycho-analysis. 

Hence  perhaps  the  reason  why  psycho-anal- 
ysis conducted  during  hypnosis  is  not  always  an 
efficient  method  of  working,  because  the  re- 
sistance is  done  away  with  in  hypnosis  and  the 
patient  often  recalls  unpleasant  material  without 
any  feelings  of  emotion  and  then  often  after  a 
period  varying  from  days  to  months  the  re- 
sistance may  again  return.  This  is  not  always 
the  case  as  a  patient  may  without  emotion  recall 
under  hypnosis  early  incidents  in  his  life,  and 


TECHNIQUE    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS    203 

after  hypnosis  one  may  force  them  upon  the 
patient's  attention,  when  he  may  view  them 
with  emotion  and  have  to  overcome  further 
resistance  when  discussing  them.  But  this 
method,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  has  no  advantage 
over  the  ordinary  method  :  moreover  there  are 
disadvantages  in  this  technique  which  I  know 
to  he  carried  out  by  some  analysts.  The 
disadvantages  are  that  a  considerable  pro- 
portion of  people  are  not  hypnotisable,  at  any 
rate  not  to  the  point  of  yielding  repressed 
material  verbally  during  hypnosis,  and,  that 
having  hypnotised  a  person  one.  sometimes 
finds  it  then  much  more  difficult  to  analyse 
him  under  ordinary  conditions.  It  seems  pro- 
bable that  under  hypnosis  one  establishes  a 
form  of  transference,  and  possibly  to  obtain  a 
transference1  of  this  kind  before  one  begins 
analysis  forms  the  barrier  to  further  analysis. 
At  any  rate,  it  is  the  experience  of  many 
analysts,  including  myself,  that  when  they  have 
hypnotised  patients  several  times  the  analysis 
often  becomes  more  difficult,  and  although  on 
occasion, where  n  patient  is  suffering  from  insomnia 
or  violent  headache  I  may  use  a  little  hypnosis, 
I  make  it  a  general  rule  not  to  use  hypnotism 
when  I  am  about  to  analyse.  Indeed,  I  may 
state  that  personally  I  only  use  hypnotism  for 
three  things  :  insomnia,  pain  and  general  amnesia. 


204    TECHNIQUE    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 

As  regards  the  time  one  should  devote  to  an 
analysis  :  the  patient  should  be  seen  at  least 
four  times  a  week,  preferably  more  often  if 
possible,  and  as  far  as  possible  on  consecutive 
days,  because  in  each  gap  which  is  left  between 
the  sittings  the  patient  goes  through  experiences 
which  modify  his  state  of  mind,  and  the  smooth- 
ness and  logical  sequence  of  the  analysis  is 
interfered  with.  About  an  hour  should  be 
devoted  to  each  sitting,  though  no  rule  can  be 
made  about  this.  If  the  patient  is  in  a  mood 
where  resistance  is  at  a  minimum  the  analysis 
should  not  be  broken  off  because  time  is  up  : 
the  next  day  you  may  get  nothing  out  of  him. 
On  the  other  hand,  if  one  finds  that  nothing  is 
being  obtained  from  him  and  that  he  is  im- 
patient under  the  analysis,  it  may  be  better 
to  discontinue  that  particular  sitting  though 
this  is  by  no  means  always  the  case.  Resistance 
seems  to  vary  considerably  from  day  to  day, 
even  in  discussing  the  same  topic,  and  resistance 
manifests   itself   in    many   ways. 

The  unconscious  mind  of  the  patient 
is  clever  at  evading  its  pursuer,  and 
needs  careful  watching.  For  instance,  the 
patient  may  state  that  he  cannot  dream  : 
or  he  may  have  so  many  dreams  and 
such  length}7  ones  that  the  whole  of  the  sitting 
is  taken  up  in  discussing  their  superficial  content. 


TFXHNIQOE    OF    PSYCHO    ANALYSIS   205 

In  either  case  the  analyst  must  not  be  disturbed. 
He  must  not  tell  the  patient  to  go  home  until 
he  does  remember  his  dreams,  but  must  select 
other  points  which  seem  suitable  and  start 
afresh,  or  he  may  tell  him  to  invent  a  dream, 
which  often  docs  just  as  well.  When  the  patient 
finds  that  he  does  not  avoid  analysis  by  not 
bringing  his  dreams  he  will  probably  begin  to 
produce  them.  If  the  patient  dreams  too  much 
he  should  not  be  allowed  to  recite  all  his  dreams, 
but  should  be  stopped  when  he  has  reached  a 
certain  point  and  be  made  to  go  on  with  his 
associations.  Another  method  of  evasion  is  for 
the  patient  to  give  so  many  associations  and 
so  freely,  though  all  of  a  superficial  nature  that 
nothing  definite  comes  out  :  here  the  physician 
must  keep  bringing  the  patient  back  to  the 
point.  Again,  the  patient  may  state  that  he 
has  no  associations  to  give  :  here  the  physician 
will  point  out  that  the  patient  cannot  have  an 
empty  mind,  that  some  ideas  must  come,  and 
that  the  patient  must  catch  them  as  they  pass 
and  tell  them  at  once.  The  whole  of  the  time 
the  physician  should  be  on  the  alert,  watching 
the  patient's  expression  and  movements,  and 
directing  the  patient's  attention  to  any  asso- 
ciations which  seem  to  call  forth  emotion  :  but 
he  should  never  show  undue  exhilaration  when 
a  successful  point  is  made  nor  disappointment 


206    TECHNIQUE    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 

when  a  long  session  fails  to  elicit  anything. 
For  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  very  much 
useless  matter  is  brought  to  the  surface  and 
made  much  of  by  the  patient's  unconscious 
mind  in  its  attempt  to  disguise  what  has  been 
so  long  repressed. 

The  associations  given  by  patients  vary  very 
much  in  type.  Some  will  have  visual  pictures 
when  they  close  their  eyes,  and  each  picture 
should  in  turn  be  analysed  in  detail,  the  details 
usually  being  reminiscences  which  may  be 
recent  and  conscious,  or  far  off  in  childhood 
and  perhaps  forgotten  altogether  until  that 
moment.  Others  again  have  reminiscences 
without  pictures  and  others  may  give  ideas 
which  come  into  their  heads  which  are  not 
reminiscences  at  all  but  which  may  be  criticisms 
or  judgments  arrived  at  in  connection  with 
reminiscences  of  incidents.  Some  cases  depart 
altogether  from  these  lines,  and  when  their  atten- 
tion is  directed  to  a  dream  will  simply  carry  on 
the  dream  interminably  as  a  phantasy.  I  had 
one  patient  who  would  start  from  his  dream 
and  go  on  for  an  hour  in  an  apparently  aimless 
fashion  in  a  sort  of  continuation  of  the  dream  : 
but  the  material  he  furnished  by  this  wandering 
phantasy  was  so  easily  translated  by  the  con- 
tinued repetition  of  the  same  situation  in  a  new 
guise  that  I  rarely  disturbed  him  in  his  chosen 


TECHNIQUE    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS    207 

method  of  association,  and  indeed  his  analysis 
proved  to  be  one  of  the  shortest  I  have 
ever  undertaken. 

As  to  the  time  occupied  by  the  analysis  it 
is  impossible  for  the  physician  to  give  an  definite 
opinion  on  this.  As  a  rule  a  young  person  of 
nineteen  or  twenty  has  obviously  much  less 
material  to  be  unearthed  than  one  who  is  older 
and  there  is  less  resistance  with  the  former  as  a 
rule,  though  it  by  no  means  follows  :  and  I  have 
known  cases  in  which  young  people  could 
with  difficulty  be  made  to  speak  of  them- 
selves at  all  or  even  to  carry  on  a  conversation. 
Again,  cases  of  long  standing  generally  take  a 
good  deal  longer  than  cases  of  recent  origin, 
but  here  it  docs  not  follow  that  there  will  not 
be  exceptions.  I  have  known  a  case  of  sixteen 
years'  standing  clear  up  entirely  in  two  months. 
Generally  speaking,  several  months  must  be 
allowed  for  an  analysis,  and  cases  have  been 
continued  by  some  analysts  for  a  year  or  two, 
but  I  have  never  had  that  experience  myself. 
On  an  average  three  to  six  months  is  long  enough 
to  clear  up  a  recent  hysteria  or  compulsion 
neurosis,  though  less  than  three  months  is  by 
no  means  uncommon  in  suitable  patients. 
As  regards  the  suitability  of  patients  it  is 
inadvisable,  except  in  rare  instances,  to  analyse 
persons  over  the  age  of  forty-five  or  fifty  years, 


208    TECHNIQUE    OF    "PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 

for  such  persons  have  usually  become  very  fixed. 
In  persons  of  scientific  training  with  plastic 
minds,  however,  it  is  not  impossible.  The 
younger  the  patient,  however,  the  better  will 
be  the  chance  of  a  successful  analysis  and  quite 
small  children  can  very  easily  be  analysed. 
Intelligence  and  education  both  render  the 
analysis  very  much  easier,  but  one  can  analyse 
an  intelligent  person  fairly  rapidly  even  though 
his  education  be  poor  :  the  less  intelligence  the 
patient  possesses  the  more  difficult  will  be  the 
analysis.  Moreover,  if  the  psychoneurosis  is 
complicated  by  the  presence  of  any  severe 
organic  symptoms  the  analysis  may  at  times 
be  also  more  difficult. 

Finally,  it  is  recommended  that  for  obvious 
reasons  physicians  should  not  analyse  their  own 
relatives.  Nor,  for  a  less  obvious  reason,  should 
they  undertake  any  analysis  without  taking 
fees.  If  a  patient  be  analysed  without  paying 
any  fee  he  will  take  very  much  longer  to  analyse 
because,  knowing  that  if  he  fails  to  overcome 
a  resistance  on  any  particular  da}'  he  can  easily 
put  it  off  till  the  next  day  without  any  further 
cost,  his  unconscious  mind,  ever  on  the  look-out 
for  an  excuse  to  keep  up  the  disguise  of  his 
inner  feelings,  will  have  a  tendency  to  strengthen 
the  resistance — much  as  the  patient  with  his 
conscious  mind  may  desire  to  be  cured  :  whereas 


TECHNIQUE    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS    209 

the  mere  fact  that  each  successive  visit  which 
is  shown  to  be  useless  is  going  to  entail  an  added 
cost  in  the  treatment  acts  as  a  stimulus  to  the 
breaking   down   of  the  resistance. 


CHAPTER    XI 

Extracts  from  the  Analysis  of  a  Com- 
pulsion Neurosis  with  Paranoid  Symptoms 

This  case  is  one  of  the  most  suitable  for  demon- 
stration purposes  that  I  have  ever  seen,  for  the 
following  reasons  : 

i.  It  was  a  severe  case  with  marked  and 
definite  S3^mptoms,  some  of  which,  it  is 
true,  bordered  upon  symptoms  of  paranoia, 
but  the  majority  of  which  comprised  an 
excellent  example  of  the  compulsion 
hysteria. 

2.  The  analysis  was  extremely  straightfor- 
ward and  short,  and  progressed  without 
a  hitch  until  a  complete  cure  was  effected 
in  the  short  space  of  about  two  months. 

3.  The  analysis  demonstrated  very  clearly 
the  mechanism  of  the  formation  of  a 
psychoneurosis. 

4.  The  analysis  showed  well  the  phenomena 
of  (a)  the  transference,  and  (b)  the  re- 
sistances of  a  typical  nature. 

With  these  preliminary  remarks  I  will  now  pass 
on  to  the  case  itself. 

210 


COMPULSION    NEUROSIS  211 

I  was  called  in  to  see  the  patient,  Miss  X., 
early  in  October,  19 — .  Her  own  doctor  was 
unfortunately  unable  to  be  present  in  consulta- 
tion, but  provided  me  with  a  written  history 
of  the  case  of  which  the  following  are  the 
essentials.  The  patient,  Miss  X.,  was  a  woman 
of  thirty-two,  of  considerable  intellectual  attain- 
ment. On  September  the  20th  (three  weeks 
before  I  saw  her)  she  had  started  to  do  "  auto- 
matic writing  "  under  some  unexplained 
"  compulsion."  Four  days  later  she  began  to 
hear  "  voices  "  speaking  to  her,  details  of  which 
were  difficult  to  obtain,  but  which,  though  at 
first  merely  discoursive,  gradually  assumed  a 
certain  amount  of  persecution. 

At  the  same  time  the  patient  became  unable 
to  sleep  for  several  nights,  and  three  days  later 
she  vomited  during  the  night.  The  voices 
continued,  and  daily  became  more  insistent. 
The  patient  became  very  preoccupied,  and  was 
apparently  greatly  troubled.  She  complained 
of   severe   headache   and   wept    frequently. 

On  September  the  29th  she  slept  during  the 
first  part  of  the  night,  but  woke  up  in  the  middle 
of  the  night.  On  the  morning  of  the  30th  she 
was  found  unconscious  in  her  bed.  Upon  this 
Dr.  S.  was  called  in  and  attempted  to  elucidate 
the  cause  of  the  unconscious  condition.  Shout- 
ing,  hard  slapping,   pricking  on  the  cheek  and 


212  COMPULSION    NEUROSIS 

soles  of  the  feet  and  on  the  hands  had  no  effect 
whatever.  I  am  given  to  understand  that 
the  reaction  of  the  pupils  was  negligable  and 
that  the  corneal  reaction  was  so  doubtful  that 
it  could  not  be  claimed.  The  patient  was  quite 
limp  and  flaccid,  and  fell  back  heavily  when 
lifted.  Dr.  S.,  suspecting  hysteria,  suggested 
an  immediate  grave  operation,  but  the  patient 
remained  unmoved.  Early  in  the  afternoon 
consciousness  returned,  and  the  doctor  stated 
that  he  was  unable  to  say  definitely  the  nature 
of  the  complaint.  The  patient  now  spoke  quite 
normalhT,  and  later  volunteered  information, 
about  the  "  automatic  writing "  and  the 
"  voices."  She  ate  well  but  looked  very  ill  and 
strained.     That  night  again  she  had  no  sleep. 

The  next  morning  (September  30th)  she 
looked  extremely  ill  and  complained  of  great 
exhaustion,  but  went  to  College  and  lectured 
on  her  customary  subjects. 

On  October  1st  she  was  very  exhausted  and 
preoccupied  and  answered  questions  only  after 
three  or  four  appeals  had  been  made  to  her. 
She  was  brought  back  from  College  in  this 
condition  and  put  to  bed,  seemingly  very  ill 
indeed.  She  became  restless,  got  out  of  bed, 
and  wandered  about  the  house.  Another  doc- 
tor, Dr.  P.,  was  called  in,  from  whom  I  had  no 
report.     That    night    she    had    no    sleep,    but 


COMPULSION    NERUOSIS  213 

gazed  vacantly  into  space  and  was  very  restless. 
On  October  2nd  she  was  again  utterly  ex- 
hausted. She  did  not  speak  and  vomited  a 
little.  Once  or  twice  she  got  out  of  bed  and 
wandered.  She  was  quiet  and  amenable,  but 
had  an  abnormal  facial  expression.  Her  eyes 
are  described  as  "  glaring,"  and  she  kept  throw- 
ing her  head  back  and  smiling.  She  also  began 
to  bite  at  her  sheets.  Occasionally,  in  answer 
to  questions,  she  answered  "  yes  "  or  "  no  "  at 
random,  although  she  knew  everybody  and 
reacted  almost  normally  to  visitors  for  a  short 
time,  apparently  with  very  great  effort.  Dr. 
S.  visited  her  again  but  was  doubtful  as  to  what 
course  to  take  with  her.  She  was  quiet  and 
may  have  had  some  sleep  during  this  night. 

On  October  3rd  she  appeared  a  little  better 
and  managed  to  sleep. 

On  October  4th  the  improvement  continued 
somewhat  ;  she  still,  however,  insisted  on  doing 
automatic  writing,  and  complained  that  the 
voices  were  almost  continuous,  and  that  they 
were  of  a  persecutory  nature.  The  question  of 
her  sanity  was  discussed,  but  fortunately  for 
the  patient  no  decision  was  arrived  at  then  and 
there. 

On  the  next  day  I  myself  visited  the  patient 
who  was  still  in  bed,  and  was  able  to  hold  a  long 
and    satisfactorv    conversation    with    her,    but 


214  COMPULSION    NEUROSIS 

before  going  into  this  part  of  the  case  I  must 
add  a  few  further  words  on  her  own  medical 
history  in  order  to  complete  the  picture. 

The  patient's  general  health  was  fairly  good, 
although  she  occasionally  suffered  from  neu- 
ralgia. Her  menstrual  periods  were  regular, 
but  she  suffered  great  pain,  which  often  caused 
nausea  and  vomiting.  The  actual  flow  was 
excessive,  and  extended  frequently  over  one 
week.  Eight  years  previously  she  had  had  an 
operation  in  hospital,  which  she  described  as 
"  being  scraped  out  " — probably  a  curetting. 
This  improved  her  condition  somewhat.  In 
August,  19 — ,  a  few  days  before  her  mental 
trouble  began,  she  saw  a  well-known  gynaecol- 
ogist, who  examined  her  but  found  nothing 
organically  wrong,  and  suggested  that  the  pain 
might  be  due  to  habit. 

With  regard  to  the  family  history,  both  her 
father  and  her  younger  brother  were  normal, 
but  her  mother  was  at  one  time  ill  for  eight 
years  with  "  internal  tumours."  No  operation 
was  performed,  and  in  time  the  tumour  dis- 
appeared. Simultaneously  with  the  disappear- 
ance of  the  tumour  her  mind  became  affected. 
She  was  in  an  asylum  for  about  three  years," 
then  was  well  for  two  years,  but  a  relapse 
occurred  in  July,  19 — ,  when  she  seemed  at 
times  insane  (this  was  about  one  month  before 


COMPULSION    NEUROSIS  215 

my  patient  developed  her  neurosis)  ;  she  was 
not,  however,  again  sent  to  an  asylum.  At 
this  time  the  father  was  fifty-six  years  old, 
the  mother  sixty  years  old,  and  the  brother 
twenty-five. 

I  will  now  pass  on  to  my  first  visit  to  the 
patient.  She  was  in  bed  and  appeared  to  be 
very  weak  and  exhausted,  but  her  expectations 
with  regard  to  me  having  been  raised  somewhat 
high,  she  was  very  pleased  to  see  me  and  anxious 
to  tell  about   her  condition. 

I  made  a  fairly  comprehensive  examination 
of  her  reflexes  and  sensations  and  found  nothing 
abnormal.  On  this  occasion  1  led  her  to  talk 
about  her  alleged  "  trance,"  and  she  admitted 
that  she  was  conscious  during  the  whole  period 
of  her  examination,  but  that  something  within 
her  told  her  that  she  must  not  wake  up  but 
must  lie  still  and  passive  whatever  were  done. 
This  was  apparently  confirmed  by  voices  which 
sjx)ke  to  her,  but  her  memory  on  this  latter 
point  was  not  very  good.  The  only  other- 
points  which  I  gleaned  from  her  at  this  visit 
were  that  she  was  almost  continuously  worried 
by  voices,  sonic  of  which  she  recognised  as 
friends — one  killed  in  the  war — others  of 
strangers.  These  latter  were  often  of  a  per- 
secutory nature.  Further,  she  was  quite  certain 
that   the  voices  were  real   and  were  not   hallu- 


216  COMPULSION    NEUROSIS 

cinations.  She  also  told  me  that  she  was 
convinced  that  the  automatic  writing  had  come 
from  "  the  other  side."  Lastly,  I  gathered 
that  a  group  of  living  people,  namely,  thirty- 
two  members  of  the  Psychical  Society,  were  at 
enmity  with  her.  She  also  stated  that  she 
had  recently  read  "  Raymond  "  by  Sir  Oliver 
Lodge. 

I  did  not  attempt  to  persuade  her  that  she 
was  the  victim  of  hallucinations,  but  assured 
her  that  I  understood  the  condition  quite  well  ; 
that  there  was  no  need  for  her  to  stay  in  bed  ; 
and  that  for  purposes  of  treatment  she  would 
have  to  visit  me  in  future.  I  then  persuaded 
her  to  get  up  and  have  tea  in  her  dining  room 
and  then  left  her.  I  mention  all  these  facts 
merely  to  show  that  one  does  not  suddenly 
plunge  into  any  sudden  form  of  psycho-analysis, 
but  that  sympathy  and  tact  may  form  a  ver}' 
essential  preliminary  stage  :  sometimes  this 
must  be  continued  over  a  somewhat  prolonged 
period. 

During  her  next  two  visits  to  me  I  did  not 
attempt  any  analysis,  but  contented  myself 
with  explaining  the  nature  of  psycho-analysis 
and  with  gradually  eliciting  something  of  her 
family  life  and  sexual  history. 

Her  sexual  history  elicited  at  this  stage  was 
as  follows  :    at  the  age  of  three  she  had  acci- 


COMPULSION*    NEUROSIS  217 

dentally  (so  far  as  she  remembered)  discovered 
the  pleasure  of  masturbation,  and  had  practised 
this  fairly  regularly  ever  since.  She  did  not 
know  whether  there  was  an  interval  after  the 
age  of  three  when  she  had  temporarily  left  off 
the  practice. 

I  very  frequently  "  break  in  "  the  patient 
to  analysis  by  means  of  the  word  association 
test,  but  in  this  case  I  had  such  a  wealth  of 
material  to  go  on  and  the  patient  was  anxious 
to  plunge  into  the  midst  of  her  troubles,  so  I 
started  upon  analysis  of  the  automatic  writing. 
Before  doing  this  I  impressed  upon  her  the  fact 
that  though  the  writing,  the  voices  and  other 
items  of  persecution  might  seem  quite  real  to 
her,  yet  for  the  purpose  of  analysis  she  must 
for  the  time  being  imagine  them  to  be  products 
of  her  unconscious  mind,  and  treat  them  as 
such.  Space  will  not  permit  me  to  go  into  the 
complete  analysis  of  the  automatic  writing, 
especially  as  I  wish  to  quote  the  apparently 
purposeless  portions  as  well  as  those  of  analyt- 
ical value,  in  order  to  demonstrate  how  much 
trivial  matter  one  must  patiently  contend  with 
in  order  to  obtain  any  useful  material.  I  will 
therefore  quote  a  portion  only  of  the  writing, 
which  led  to  certain  facts  being  forthcoming. 
It  started  as  follows  :  (The  writing  purported 
to  have  come  from  a  spirit  and  was  interspersed 


218  COMPULSION    NEUROSIS 

with  Miss  X.'s  comments  and  questions,  also 
in  writing  ;  the  two  handwritings  were  quite 
different)  : 

The  Spirit.      (Illegible      words).        "  ....  to 
write.     Have  you  read  the  sen- 
tence, my  darling  ?  " 
Miss  X.  "  No,  not  the  first  part." 

The  Spirit.  "  Why  do  you  want  to  write  ?  ': 
Miss  X.  "I   want   to   know  things   about 

spiritual  life  in  other  spheres 
than  this.  I  am  seriously  in- 
terested in  them,  but  I  do  not 
want  to  do  anything  wicked 
or  wrong." 
The  Spirit.      "  You    only    want    to    know    for 

curiosity." 
Miss  X.  "I    suppose    it    is    chiefly    that  : 

also  I  want  to  be  convinced  of 
the  existence  of  spirits.  I  think 
I  am,  and  I  believe  it  is  a  serious 
and  real  thing  to  be  convinced 
of,  but  I  am  not  quite  sure.  I 
should  like  to  know  if  people  go 
on  living  after  they  are  dead." 
The  Spirit.      "  What       are      .   .   .  .  "        (Rest 

illegible). 
Miss  X.  "  Will   you   write   that    again  ?  ' 

The  Spirit.      "  What  are  Magdalene's  moods  ?  ' 


COMPULSION    NEUROSIS  219 

Miss  X.  "  Who  are  you  and  what  do  you 

mean  ? 
The  Spirit.      "  Darling,    I    am    your    lover.     I 

died  years  ago,  my  darling,  my 

angel." 
Miss  X.  "  How    can    you    be  ?     Did    you 

ever  know  me  ?  " 
The  Spirit.      "  Why  not  ?  " 
Miss  X.  "I  have  never  had  a  lover  that  I 

know  of." 
The  Spirit.      "  Yes." 
Miss  X.  "  What  is  your  name  ?  " 

The  Spirit.      "  My  name  is  William  Morris,  my 

own." 
Miss  X.  '  When  did  you  know  me  ?  " 

The  Spirit.       '  Mine  own  wife  you  are.     I  met 

you  in  Sunny  Spain,  my  darling. 

I  love  you." 
Miss  X.  "  Was  I  your  wife  in  the  life  I  lived 

previous  to  this  ? 
The  Spirit.       '  Yes,  you  were,  my  darling." 
Miss  X.  ''  Shall  I  be  anyone  else's  wife  in 

this  life,  or  do  I  still  belong  to 

you  ? 
The  Spirit.      "  You  are  going  to  marry  another 

man    soon  " 
Miss  X.  "  How  soon  ? 

The  Spirit.      (Answer    illegible.) 
Miss  X.  "  Can't  von  tell  me  ? 


2io  COMPULSION    KEUROSiS 

The  Spirit.      "  Nine   months  :     you   are   going 

to   be   engaged  in   a  fortnight. 

You  will  meet  him  to-morrow 

in  the  Tube." 
Miss  X.  "  Thank  you  for  telling  me.     Will 

you  tell  me  some  more  about 

how  I  shall  meet  him,  so  that  I 

may  know  that  what  you  say  is 

true  ?  " 
The  Spirit.      "  You  must  believe." 
Miss  X.  "  If   what   you   say   comes   true, 

then  I  am  bound  to  believe." 
The  Spirit.      "  You  do  believe." 
Miss  X.  "  Yes,  I  think  so." 

The  Spirit.      "  I,  .  .  .  (words     illegible),      my 

darling,   my  own." 
Miss  X.  "  Are  you  sorry  I  am  going  to  be 

married   to   another   man  ?  " 
The  Spirit.      "  Yes." 
Miss  X.  "  Are  you  in  this  life  now,  as  I 

am  ?     Or  are  you  a  spirit  ?  " 
The  Spirit.      "  I  am  a  spirit." 
Miss  X.  "  Where  are  you  living  ?  ' 

The  Spirit.      "  In  Heaven." 
Miss  X.  "  Are  you  happy  ?  ' 

The  Spirit.      "  Yes." 
Miss  X.  "  Do  you  like  talking  to  me  like 

this  ?  " 
The  Spirit.      "  Yes." 


COMPULSION    NEUROSIS  2H 

Miss  X.  "  Is  it  right  to  do  it  ?  " 

The  Spirit.  "  Yes." 

Miss  X.  "  Is  it  dangerous  ?  " 

The  Spirit.  "  Yes." 

Miss  X.  "  For  me  or  for  you  ?  ' 

The  Spirit.  "  For  you,  because  you  may  get 
hurt  by  evil  spirits  which  may 

come  into  communication  with 

> » 
you. 

Miss  X.  "  How   can    I   guard   against   the 

evil    ones  ? 

The  Spirit.       '  You  must  pray  as  you  do  it." 

Miss  X.  "  Is  it  all  right  now  ?  " 

The  Spirit.      "  Yes." 

Miss  X.  "  Why  ?  " 

The  Spirit.      "  Because  you  prayed." 

Miss  X.  "  You   mean   before   I    began   to- 

night ?  " 

The  Spirit.      "  Yes." 

Miss  X.  '  If  you  are  in  Heaven  and  are 

happy,  why  do  you  mind  if  I 
marry  again  ? 

The  Spirit.  '  Because  you  are  going  to  be 
another's.  You  will  meet  him 
.'it  the  Tube,  on  the  station,  at 
Baker  Street.  He  will  meet  you 
at  the  Booking  Ofhcc.  You  will 
meet  him  in  the  queue,  lie  will 
sav  :  '  Can  you  soon  marry  me?  ' 


222  COMPULSION    NEUROSIS 

Miss  X.  "  Shall     I     be    too    shocked    to 

answer  ?  " 
The  Spirit.      "  No  !  " 

Miss  X.  "  Is  he  a  good  and  nice  man  ?  " 

The  Spirit.      "  Yes." 
Miss  X.  "  Is  he  a  soldier  ?  " 

The  Spirit.      "  Yes." 

Miss  X.  "  What  shall  I  say  to  him  ?  " 

The  Spirit.      "  You  will  say,  '  Wait  a  little  .  .  . 

(words  illegible).'  ' 
Miss  X.  '  What    comes    after    '  Wait    a 

little  '  ?  " 
The  Spirit.      "  Why  act  so  soon  ?  " 
Miss  X.  "  Do  I  know  the  man  already  ?  ' 

The  Spirit.      "  No." 
Miss  X.  "  Then  it  will  be  love  at  first  sight 

for  both  of  us  ?  " 
The  Spirit.      "  Yes." 
Miss  X.  "  What  is  his  name  ?  " 

The  Spirit.      "  William  Moore." 

There  were  many  dozens  of  pages  following 
this,  which  continued  daily  and  purported  to  be 
descriptions  of  the  condition  of  spirits  on  the 
other  side.  There  were  also  messages  purporting 
to  come  from  Raymond  Lodge  and  a  man  called 
Charles  Yasting.  But  the  essential  part  of  my 
analysis  of  the  automatic  writing  was  concerned 
with  the  portion  I  have  quoted. 

It  would  be  interesting,  but  unnecessary,  to 


COMPULSION    NEUROSIS  223 

go  into  the  whole  of  it.  I  may  add  that  Miss 
X.,  on  being  informed  by  the  spirit  of  the  hour 
at  which  she  was  to  go  to  the  station  to  meet  her 
unknown  lover,  actually  did  go  there,  but  he 
failed  to  keep  the  appointment.  She  came  back 
and  accused  the  spirit  of  having  misled  her,  but 
he  pointed  out  that  it  was  entirely  her  fault  as 
she  was  a  few  minutes  late  at  the  trysting  place. 

The  spirit's  handwriting  throughout  was  quite 
different  from  that  of  Miss  X.,  and  there  is  no 
doubt  that  while  writing  she  was  quite  uncon- 
scious of  what  the  alleged  spirit  was  going  to  say 
and  was  quite  convinced  that  she  was  in  com- 
munication with  someone  who  had  previously 
died.  I  now  pass  on  to  the  analysis  of  a  few 
portions  of  this  writing. 

I    said  :     "  Give    me    some    associations    to  : 

"  The  name,  William  Morris." 

She  replied  :  "A  poet — is  connected  with 
automatic  writing — also  with  William  Moore. 
This  brings  to  mind  the  fact  that  1  stopped  the 
writing  at  one  stage  because  William  Morris 
said  1  was  to.  Billy.  Charles  Yasting.  His 
wife.  College.  Bangor.  Rowing  in  the  Menai 
Straits.  Botany.  Cultures.  Research  work.  . 
.  .  ."  (A  long  pause.) 
Yes  ;  go  on." 

"  Nothing.     I  can't." 

"  Go  on,"   I   urged. 


224  COMPULSION    NEUROSIS 

"  Googlywogs.     Rot.     Fathead.     Silly.    This 

is  rot." 

(This    sample    shows    how    unpromising    an 

analysis  may  seem,  especially  to  the  beginner). 
Then  followed  a  good  deal  of  similar  matter, 

most  of  which  was  unimportant.     I  took  her 

back  to  the  word  "  Googlywogs,"  and  asked  her 

to  explain  that. 

Googlywogs. — "  Careless — happy   and   flippant." 

Goo. — "  Bergoo,  a  name  for  porridge  we  had  in 
childhood.  We  didn't  like  it.  Food  :  war 
rations." 

Googly. — "  O  Lord  !  What  have  I  done  to  you  ? 
Sugar.  Something  sweet — through  bergoo 
— and  sugar  on  porridge.  I  used  to  give 
mine  to  the  dog.  (Pause.)  I  don't  know 
any  more." 

Wogs. — "  A  dog — a  little  one  we  have — Jacky — 
another  name  for  him  is  Wiggle- Waggle. 
Love — she's  rather  a  nice  dog.  It  makes 
me  feel  as  if  someone  were  telling  me  they 
were  in  love  with  me."  (Pause.) 
Yes.  How  do  you  connect  that  with  dog?" 
"  Shouldn't  think  there  is  much  connection. 
Perhaps  their  sexual  intercourse.  I  used  to 
be  interested  in  it  as  a  child.  .  .  Sugar 
sticks  :  we  used  to  have  rabbits  in  the  gar- 
den. The  does  teased  them.  Rabbits  : 
I've  looked  out  of  the  window  at  them  while 


COMPULSION    NEUROSIS  225 

I've  been  ill.  I've  connected  them  in  my 
mind  with  myself.  I  don't  know  how  : 
they  remind  me  of  the  calf  in  the  book  of 
Revelations." 

The  calf?" 

'  It's  symbolic  :  a  sacrifice.  I  had  to  sacri- 
fice myself,  although  I  was  doing  something 
very  silly,  to  help  on  something  I  know 
nothing  about." 

Yes  ?  " 

"  Psychical  Research.  I  had  to  sacrifice 
myself  to  defend  people  from  something 
very  wrong.     I  won't  tell  you  what." 

Yes.     Co  on." 
"  No,  I  won't." 

William  Morris  :   get  back  to  him  again." 

He  was  a  poet  :  he  wrote  a  poem — T  forget 
it's  name  :  begins  with  a  P.  The  lines  at 
the  end  of  it.  .  .  I  forget  them.  C)  yes, 
the  poem  is  called  '  Prospice.'  "  (Here  is 
an  excellent  example  of  resistance  causing 
forgetting). 

That  poem   is  by  Browning,"   I   replied,  "  and 

the  last  lines  are  these  : 
Then  a  light 

Then  thy  breast,  O  thou  soul  of  my  soul, 
I  shall  clasp  thee  again 
And  with  God  be  the  rest  ! 

At   this    point    Miss   X.    blushed    deeply   and 


226  COMPULSION    NEUROSIS 

showed  considerable  emotion,  indicating,  as 
indeed  does  the  whole  automatic  writing,  a 
repressed  desire  to  "  clasp "  somebod}^ — i.e., 
a  repressed  erotic  desire  towards  the  male 
sex. 

A  few  more  similar  analytic  points  led  to  the 
same  conclusion,  and  I  asked  Miss  X.  if  she  did 
not  agree  with  this.  I  pointed  out  that  she  was 
of  a  marriageable  age,  exceptionally  good- 
looking,  intelligent,  and  asked  if  there  were  any 
reason  why  she  should  repress  this  desire  for 
marriage.  She  said  that  she  thought  that  on 
several  occasions  the  opportunity  might  have 
arisen,  but  that  curiously  enough  she  could  not 
bear  a  man  to  touch  her  in  any  way.  As  soon 
as  it  reached  the  point  that  a  man  might  put  his 
arm  round  her  waist  she  was  filled  with  an 
immediate  horror  and  everything  was  "  off  "  at 
once.  She  could  assign  no  reason  for  this  state 
of  affairs,  so  I  left  the  matter  for  the  time  being 
and  took  up  my  thread  with  the  next  name  that 
occurred  in  the  automatic  writing. 
"  Magdalene's  Moods  ?  " 

"  Magdalene.  A  woman  :  Christ  forgave 
her  her  sins.  Cutting  up  bluebell  stalks. 
Pretending  to  be  the  Virgin  Mary — just 
happy  and  placid — submissive — silly — cut- 
ting oil  dead  ends  of  ilowers.  I  was  doing 
this   when   I   had   to  say   I   was  she — the 


COMPULSION    NEUROSIS  227 

Virgin  Mary — The  Dream  of  Gerontius — a 
poem." 

The  Virgin  Mary — go  back  to  thai." 

"  I  felt  I  was  the  Virgin  Mary  before  I  had 
the  trance — I  believed  I  was  the  Virgin  Mary. 
In  the  trance  I  thought  there  was  a  spirit  in 
the  room.  The  Virgin  Mary  conceived  of 
the  Holy  Ghost."  (Here  Miss  X.  looked 
confused  and  angry,  and  it  was  with  greater 
difficulty  that  I  persuaded  her  to  proceed.) 

The  Virgin  Mary." 

'  The  Holy  Spirit — anger — feeling  angry — 
I  was  the  Holy  Spirit  as  well  as  the  Virgin 
Mary — but  at  different  times.  I  had  to  be 
angry  and  find  out  things  that  were  wrong." 
(Pause.) 

Yes?" 

'  Things    that    were    wrong    with    work- 
things  that  were  wrong  with  the  Psychical 
Research  Society." 
es. 
'  The  Virgin  Mary  is  not  like  me."     (It  will 
be  observed  that  Miss  X.  very  promptly  left 
the  "  Psychical  Research  Society  "  owing  to 
resistance  and  returned  to  a  less  resistant 
point,  though  it  was  one  that  led  to  a  good 
deal  of  information   being  given.) 

I    am    wieked.     The    Virgin    Mary    was 
pure."      (Here    was    her    obvious     '  wish  " 


228  COMPULSION    NEUROSIS 

expression   in    assuming   the   part   of   the 
Virgin  Mary  in  her  hysteria.     Moreover,  the 
Virgin  Mary  was  enabled  to  conceive  with- 
out having  to  touch  any  man — a  thing  Miss 
X.   detested.     Here  again  is  the  "  wish  " 
expressed  in  excellent  symbolism). 
I  asked  Miss  X.  if  she  accepted  this  explana- 
tion and  she  replied  that  it  had  already  occurred 
to  her  a  few  minutes  previously.     It  was  further 
borne  out  at  a  later  stage  of  the  proceedings. 

I  am  now  going  to  leave  out  a  good  deal  of  the 
analysis  of  the  automatic  writing — much  of  it 
was  wandering  and  apparently  far  from  the 
point  ;  I  say  "  apparently,"  for  no  doubt  the 
irrelevant  matter  really  constituted  a  long  chain 
of  associations.  I  wish  to  give  such  portions  of 
the  analysis  as  clearly  demonstrate  the  facts  of 
this  case,  and  at  the  same  time  to  give  a  fair 
proportion  of  so-called  irrelevant  matter  ;  but 
many  of  the  facts  which  came  to  light  did  so  on 
various  occasions  and  through  different  channels 
of  association,  and  it  is  not  my  intention  to  give 
ah  these  redundant  facts. 

The  next  part  of  the  analysis  of  paramount 
interest  was  that  connected  with  the  "  Psychical 
Research  Society." 

I  must  here  explain  that  Miss  X.  shared  a  flat 
with  another  woman  friend  of  about  her  own 
age.     This  lady,  whom  I  will  call  Miss  Yates, 


COMPULSION    NEUROSIS  229 

gave  me  the  following  precis  of  a  statement  made 
by  Miss  X.  during  the  height  of  her  illness,  Miss 
X.  being  highly  excited  and  insistent  through- 
out. 

"  The  Psychical  Research  Society  is  doing 
something  terribly  wrong.  It  is  injuring 
people — doing  horrid  things  to  them.  (Miss 
Yates  asked  :  '  To  people  you  know  ?  ') 
Yes  (mentioning  names)  and  to  others  who 
have  lost  people  in  the  war.  (Miss  Yates 
asked  what  injuries).  The  injuries  are  of  a 
sexual  nature.  (Details  were  not  given  to 
me  by  Miss  Yates).  They  will  come  and 
tell  me  so.  Will  they  come  to-night  ? 
There  are  thirty-two  of  them.  They  must 
come  to-night.  They  must  come  before  I 
can  go  to  sleep.  They  injure  others  as  they 
injured  me  when  you  were  away.  They 
did  things  to  me  in  the  night  and  made  me 
ill.  I  help  the  people  they  injure  by  pray- 
ing.    I  have  helped  some  :    these  will  come 

and  tell  me  so.    They  used  me  as  F (the 

medium  in  '  Raymond  ')  my  subconscious 
self.  You  were  there  too.  I  must  help  by 
praying  and  in  some  other  way — I  don't 
know  what.  I  have  to  fight  against  evil  : 
it  makes  me  ill,  but  it  may  be  worth  while. 
They  use  me  to  injure  others — I  have  to 
fight    against    it    by    praying.     They    tried 


230  COMPULSION    NEUROSIS 

to  injure  you  :  I  said  I  wouldn't  have  you  in. 
They  will  come  and  tell  you." 
Miss   X.    was   thoroughly   convinced   of   the 
reality  of  this  persecution  :    there  was  no  doubt 
of  that. 

Now  as  the  analysis  of  the  Psychical  Research 
Society  I  will  only  give,  as  before,  portions  that 
are  relevant  to  an  understanding  of  the  case.     I 
asked  for  associations  : 
"  The  Psychical  Research  Society  ?  " 

"  Raymond — spirits — once    when    I    went 
away  for  a  holiday  I  played  a  game  with  a 
tumbler  that  spelled  out  words,  and  someone 
did  automatic  writing." 
(Here  followed  matter  which  did  not  at  the 
moment  lead  anywhere,  and  I  left  it  for  the  time 
being.) 
"  The  Psychical  Research  Society  again  ?  " 

'  They  are  terribly  wrong,  injuring  people 
by  letting  husbands  and  wives  communicate 
after  the  husband  is  dead.  The  medium 
might  take  part  of  a  personality  and  use  it 
through  the  spirit.  Also  they  do  sexual 
injuries." 
"  Yes. — They  injured  you..  ? 

"  I  felt  things  in  the  dark.  ..." 
I  es  ? 

"  I  don't  know  what  I  mean." 
do  on. 


COMPULSION    NEUROSIS  231 

(Miss  X.,  however,  stopped  here  and  went  on 
to  another  point,  so  I  reserved  this  one  for 
future  use.  It  is  no  use  wasting  time  on  a  thread 
the  patient  will  not  follow.  It  is  better  to 
return  to  it  when  other  information  has  come 
out    elsewhere.)     Miss    X.    continued  : 

"  After  I  went  to  meet  the  man  at  the  Tube 
I  went  on  writing,  and  voices  directed  me  to 
do  things.  I  was  still  in  bed.  The  people 
I  helped  by  prayer  were  shocked.  The 
voices  told  me  so.  I  spoke  to  the  Psychical 
Research  Society  about  it  and  then  I  came 
to  a  full  stop  because  they  did  not  listen. 
Voices  made  me  go  and  meet  the  man  again 
on  Sunday.  He  wasn't  there.  In  the 
night  when  I  was  in  a  trance  I  had  an  un- 
comfortable experience,  as  if  someone  were 
in  the  room  in  the  dark.  I  had  sensations 
as  if  one  were  married.  I  imagined  it  was  a 
spirit.  I  think  it  was  Christ,  I  am  not  sure. 
Then  afterwards  I  thought  it  was  my  dead 
friend,  Yastings.  I  heard  them  speaking  ; 
they  talked  about  religion  as  though  they 
were  making  love.  They  wanted  me  to 
stay  in  bed  and  told  me  I  must  not  wake  up. 
I  imagined  the  spirit  was  in  bed  with  me, 
but  it  turned  into  a  man.  Then  I  got  a 
sensation." 
"  Do  you  mean  a  normal  sexual  sensation  ?''  I  asked 


232  COMPULSION    NEUROSIS 

"  I  do  not  know  if  I  was  quite  satisfied 
sexually.     Next  day  they  fetched  the  doctor 
and  I  wouldn't  wake  up.     I  have  had  normal 
sexual  sensations  often  when  awake,  but 
not  before  in  a  trance.     In  a  dream  I  have. 
Years  back  I  had  such  feelings  in  my  dreams. 
I  was  25  or  26  ;  but  these  feelings  were  not 
complete." 
(Note. — This  portion  of  the  analysis  again  shows 
very  clearly  that  Miss  X.   had  strong  sexual 
desires  which  were  repressed  ;    that  the  idea  of 
sexual  relationship  with  a  man  was  desired  and 
repressed ;  and  it  bears  out  our  previous  finding 
that  she  could  not  bear  a  man  to  touch  her.     It 
is  obvious  then  that  she  was  not  of  a  true  homo- 
sexual   nature     in     her    unconscious — though 
superficially  she  would  appear  to  be  so,  and  even 
physically  she  appeared  superficially  to  be  so, 
as  we  shall  find  shortly.) 

Free  association  was  continued  from  the  last 
point,  i.e.,  the  sexual  dreams  of  the  patient, 
which  were  incomplete.     She  continued  : 

"  I  have  had  complete  satisfaction  when 
awake  very  frequently,  but  not  lately. 
Lately  I  have  tried  not  to  do  it.  The  first 
time  must  have  been  at  about  the  age  of 
three  or  four  years.  I  found  it  out  for 
myself.  I  have  done  things  with  other 
girls  ;     I  can  still  see  them — the  girls.     I 


COMPULSION    NEUROSIS  233 

have  never  had  anything  to  do  with  a  man 
sexually"     (Pause.) 
"  Yes?"  I  urged  her. 

'  The  last  time  I  masturbated  was  when 

I  was  ill  in  bed  ;   about  the  time  I  had  my 

trance,  but  before  that  I  must  have  been 

three  or  four  months  without  anything  of 

the  kind." 

(Later  on,  out  of  another  series  of  analyses  which 

I  need  not  go  into  fully,  a  continuation  of  the 

sexual  history  took  place,  as  follows)  : 

"  I  have  only  masturbated  at  rare  intervals 
during  the  last  two  years  ;    but  previously 
I  used  to  do  it  once  or  twice  a  week.     About 
three  months  ago   I   did  it  with   another 
girl." 
'  Why  did  you  fight  against  your  desires  recently?  " 
'  It  was  not  good  for  me.     I  have  felt  very 
passionate,  but  have  resisted  it.     I   think 
one  oughtn't  to  do  it.     It  is  wrong.     After 
doing  it  I  have  felt  guilty.     It  is  distasteful 
to  me.     I  have  been  more  religious  lately 
since  my  trance  ;    before  that  my  religion 
(Church  of  England),  was  of  a  very  unemo- 
tional type.     Now  it  is  different  since  all 
this    happened." 
(Here  we  have  a  good  example  of  a  sublimation 
of  psychic  energy,  from  a  sexual  emotion  to  a 
religious  emotion.     This  has  been  brought  about 


234  COMPULSION    NEUROSIS 

by  the  patient  herself  in  an  attempt  to  defend 
herself  from  the  unbearable  ideas.) 

I  used  to  have  a  report  from  the  friend,  Miss 
Yates,  with  whom  Miss  X.  shared  her  flat.  I 
will  quote  a  few  notes  from  this  about  this  period 
in  order  to  demonstrate  that  up  to  the  present 
very  little  had  really  been  accomplished  ;  we 
had  only  begun  to  gather  our  different  threads 
together. 
Fragments  of  daily  report : 

October  iSth  and  iCjth. — Very  abstracted.     Did 

a  few  household  tasks,  some  wrong,  very 

slowly.     Laughed    frequently. 

.  October  20th. — Same  as  above.     Played  piano 

a  little,  fairly  well.     On   being  questioned 

talked  to  me  quite  freely  about  the  voices, 

and  insisted  that  she  knew  that  she  was 

talking    with    other    people's    subconscious 

selves  about  religion  and  such  things,  and 

it  was  very  important  that  she  should  do 

so.     She  had  found  out  how  to  do  it  and 

was  learning   how  to  help.     It   was  more 

important    than    anything   else.     She   told 

me  some  facts  the  voices  had  told  her  about 

one  of  my  friends,  which  I  was  able  to  prove 

quite  incorrect. 

October  21st. — Very  restless  and  tired  ;  seemed 

more  abstracted.     Reads  a  little  (very  little 

actual    reading,     I     think)  ;      Thompson's 


COMPULSION    NEUROSIS  235 

"  Poems,"  "  Atonement  and   Personality," 
by  Mobcrly,   "  The  Treasure  of  the  Hum- 
ble," by  Maeterlinck,  and  the  "  Differential 
Calculus."     She  lies  awake  a  long  time  after 
going  to  bed  and  wakes  early  in  the  morning. 
Remembers   very   little   of   what    happens, 
although  her  mind  is  quite  clear  about  events 
before  she  started  the  automatic  writing. 
October    2yd. — Complains    of    feeling    giddy 
when  she  walks  and  when  she  tries  to  attend 
much    to    outside    things    or    conversation. 
Says  she   now   understands   non-Euclidean 
Geometry. 
It  will  be  clear  from  this  that  the  voices  which 
spoke  to  her  were  still  in  the  nature  of  delusions  ; 
that  they  had  not  yet  become  hallucinations,  a 
stage  commonly  found  as  this  type  of  hysteria 
clears  up. 

Out  of  these  daily  reports  I  used  occasionally 
to  obtain  material  lor  association,  and  from  this 
set  in  particular  I  laid  bare  one  repressed  mental 
conflict.  I  asked  for  some  association  to  the 
'  Differential  Calculus,  to  which  Miss  X.  stunned 
very  partial  at  this  time,  and  obtained  the 
following  : 

Differential  Calculus  :  Mathematics  ; 
education  ;  my  ambitions  ;  I  desire  to 
become  a  great  educationalist — not  merely 
a   teacher — a    principal    and    a    pioneer    in 


236  COMPULSION    NEUROSIS 

education.     I  have  not  thought  about  this 
lately  ;  it  used  to  be  a  very  great  ambition." 
"  Yes  ?     Why    have  you    not   thought    about    it 
lately?" 

"  I  don't  know." 
"  Did  you  ever  have  other  ambitions  ?  " 

"  Yes.     I  longed  above  all  things  to  have  a 
house  of  my  own  and  a  husband  and  chil- 
dren.    I  want  real  family  life." 
"Well?" 

"It  is  not  possible  to  have  that  and  also 
to  become  a  great  educationalist — besides, 
I  don't  think  I  shall  ever  marry." 
"  /  see,"  said  I.     "  The  two  ideals,  the  educational 
one  on  the  one  hand  and  the  family  ideal  on  the 
other,  are  in  your  mind  incompatible  ?  " 
"  Yes." 
"So,"  I  continued,  "you  repressed  the  conflict 
between  the  two,  which  was  insoluble,  and  added 
its    force   to    other   repressions    causing  your 
Neurosis." 

She  seemed  quite  pleased  with  this  solution, 
and  stated  that  she  felt  sure  that  it  was  true.  I 
pointed  out  that  she  must  definitely  take  one 
path  or  another  in  all  such  cases,  instead  of 
repressing,  even  if  afterwards  she  should  change 
her  mind  and  choose  another  path.  I  introduce 
this  small  portion  of  the  analysis  as  being  an 
example  of  the  many  mental  conflicts  which  may 


COMPULSION    NEUROSIS  237 

be  repressed  and  which,  though  in  themselves 
insufficient  to  cause  a  hysteria,  may  add  the  sum 
of  their  force  to  others  and  have  effect  in  its 
final  determination. 

A  return  to  the  analysis  of  the  automatic 
writing  about  this  period  led  to  some  important 
details  being  given  which  were  not  entirely 
forgotten,  but  which  had  hitherto  been  hidden 
from  me,  partly  out  of  loyalty  to  the  patient's 
friend,  Miss  Yates.  I  will  just  quote  one  of  the 
important  portions. 

"Associations  to  the  name*  Charles  Yastings  ?  " 
'  His  wife  ;  he's  a  decent  fellow.  I  stayed 
with  them  after  they  were  married.  I  went 
to  say  goodbye  to  her  at  the  station.  She 
didn't  like  me  smiling  at  her  husband.  She 
thought  I  meant  more  than  I  did.  I  meant 
nothing.  She  was  at  college  with  me  ;  a 
good  friend.  I  never  did  anything  sexual 
with  her." 
"  Why  do  you  add  that  last  sentence  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know  ;    it  came  into  my  mind." 
"  Well,  go  on  with  Charles  Yastings." 

"  His  was  one  of  the  first  voices  I  heard. 
He  wrote  in  the  automatic  writing  and 
talked  to  me.  When  I  was  digging  he 
talked  of  things  I  was  doing.  He  also 
talked  to  me  in  the  theatre  when  the  play 
was    going    on  ;     nothing    important.     He 


238  COMPULSION    NEUROSIS 

wanted  me  to  write  to  his  wife.  He  wanted 
me  to  stop  writing  because  it  was  dangerous. 
I  was  friendly  with  them  both.  He  said  he 
was  desperate  in  my  life.  I  don't  know 
what  he  meant." 

"  Why  should  he  have  come  to  you  ?  " 

"  Because  he  is  the  only  man  I  knew  well 
who  was  dead.  I  don't  know  many  men 
well."  Then  she  continued  :  "  Yastings 
sounds  like  Yates  (the  friend's  name  with 
whom  Miss  X.  lived).  I  am  more  friendly 
with  her.  .  .  I  was  not  in  love  with  Charles 
Yastings  ;  I've  never  been  in  love  with  a 
man.     I've  never   had   passionate   feelings 

towards  a  man .     Yes,  once,  about  four 

months  ago  :  in  a  railway  carriage — a 
stranger  ;  by  accident  he  was  exposing  a 
little  of  his  body  and  I  felt  passionate  then." 

(It  will  be  noticed  that  even  this  incident  did  not 

revive  similar  childish  memories  which  we  shall 

discover  later  on.) 

She  went  on  :  "I've  never  been  proposed 
to  ;  I've  never  really  been  in  love  :  my  two 
greatest  loves  have  been  my  mother  and 
Miss  Yates." 

"  Which  is  the  greater  love  ?  " 

"  Miss  Yates  ;  I've  been  in  love  with 
another  girl,  too,  before." 

"  Yes — go  on." 


COMPULSION    NEUROSIS  239 

"  Now*  I  have  no  affection  for  Miss  Yates. 

When  she  went  to  stay  away  I  was  alone. 

She  doesn't  like  seeing  people  or  going  out. 

I  do  ;    but  I  had  to  go  with  her  only.     I 

think  you  may  call  it  '  being  in  love.'     I 

used  to  have  sexual  pleasures  with  her,  but 

I  couldn't  get  any  pleasure  unless  I  imagined 

she  was  a  man." 

(Here  we  see  again  that  in  spite  of  homosexual 

actions,  psychically  Miss  X.  is  not  a  homosexual, 

nor  is  she  in  any  way  "  inverted."     As  yet  we 

have  no  evidence,  however,  as  to  why  she  has 

this    "  pseudo-homosexual  "    complex.) 

I  now  pass  on  to  a  dream  which  occurred  at  a 
somewhat  later  date.  I  did  not  do  a  full  analysis 
of  the  dream  for  two  reasons,  firstly  because  the 
one  point  analysed  gave  us  the  essential  facts, 
and  secondly  because  at  the  next  sitting  we  had 
to  enter  into  other  matters  that  had  arisen. 
Several  other  short  dreams  were  analysed,  each 
giving  their  small  quota  to  the  investigation,  but 
space  will  not  permit  me  to  give  all  the  details, 
nor  is  it  necessary  to  the  understanding  of  the 
case. 
The  Dream. 

"  Some  one — a  woman,  I  think-  -took  a 
photograph  out  of  an  envelope  which  was 
lying  on  my  desk  and  gave  the  photograph 
to  me  to  look  at.     It  was  a  group  of  girls 


240  COMPULSION    NEUROSIS 

whom  I  did  not  know,  and  I  thought  the 
name  of  one  of  them  was  a  Welsh  name. 
Then  I  woke  up." 
I  asked  for  associations  to  the  Welsh  name. 
"  The  name  that  comes  into  my  head,"  said 
Miss  X.,  "is  Jenny  Phillips,  a  girl  I  was  at 
school  with.  We  used  to  travel  to  school 
in  the  train  together." 

"  How  old  were  you  ?  " 

"  Eight  or  nine  years  old."     (Pause.) 

"Go  on." 

The  patient  was  considerably  agitated  and 
looked  very  pained.  She  stated  that  she 
could  not  remember  any  more,  but  on  being 
further  urged,  continued  :  "  Several  of  us 
used  to  travel  to  school  in  the  train  together. 
There  was  often  a  man  in  the  train.  I'd 
forgotten  all  about  him  until  now,  or  I'd 
have  told  you  before.  He  used  to  read  a 
newspaper,  and  beneath  the  newspaper  he 
used  to  open  his  trousers  and  expose  his 
genital  organs  to  us.  One  day  when  I  was 
alone,  and  getting  out  of  the  carriage,  he 
put  his  hand  up  my  skirt  as  I  passed.  I 
was  terribly  frightened  and  told  the  school 
mistress.  There  was  a  fearful  row  about 
it  all.  It's  funny,  but  I've  quite  forgotten 
the  whole  thing  until  this  minute." 

"  Does  it  throw  any  light  on  your  condition  ?  " 


COMPULSION    NEUROSIS  241 

11  Yes.     I'm  quite  sure  that  my  fear  of  men 

touching  me  dates  from  that  time,  now  I 

think  of  it." 

After  a  little  thought  she  then  explained  to  me 

that  she  could  now  see  how  this  fact  had  given 

her  a  horror  of  contact  with  men,  although  she 

wished  to  be  married,  and  that  no  doubt  this  was 

why  she  had  behaved  in  a  homosexual  fashion 

and  had  yet  been  obliged  to  imagine  that  the 

other  woman  was  a  man. 

I  did  not  have  to  explain  or  point  out  any  of 
these  facts  to  her. 

On  the  next  visit  I  was  pleased  to  find  a  very 
great    improvement.     The    voices    were    fewer 
and    less    insistent,    and    moreover    were    now 
recognised  as  hallucinations.     Miss  X.  realised 
at  last  that  she  had  had  delusions,  but  that  the 
voices  now  were  quite  unreal.     However,  I  was 
annoyed  to  find  that  she  had  developed  another 
symptom,  which  we  had  to  do  a  short  analysis 
of.     She  complained  that  she  felt  a  tight  band 
round  her  head.     I  asked  her  to  concentrate  her 
mind  on  it  and  tell  me  what  came  into  her  mind. 
'  Trying  to  read  Pfister — that  was  the  first 
time — the  snakes — windows — trying  to  see 
the  connection  between  different  interpre- 
tations   in    Pfister.     Bands — the    speckled 
band    of    Holmes — bell    ropes— trying    to 
remember  things—  the  iron  clamp  of  a  retort 


242  COMPULSION    NEUROSIS 

stand — working  in  a  laboratory.  I  get  it 
when  I  try  to  recall  scenes  from  my  early 
life.  It  tightens  up  then.  I  feel  as  if  I 
were  looking  in  my  head  for  something.  I 
I  think  of  elastic  bands  and  father's  shop 
and  father.  Something  whirling  round — 
the  band  is  like  that — a  flat  disc  with  a  big 
hole  in  the  centre — like  a  halo  whirling 
round — a  tight  halo — Neptune — I  don't  see 
what  it  symbolises  unless  I  take  for  granted 
Pfister's  interpretation  of  snakes  and  male 
symbols,  and  that  doesn't  seem  the  right 
interpretation.  It's  like  a  halo." 
"  What  does  a  halo  symbolise  ?  " 

"  A    saint — good    people — angels." 
"  Yes.    And  have  you  not  recently  represented  one?" 
"  You  mean  the  Virgin  Mary  ?     Of  course  ; 
well,  what  does  it  mean  then  ?     Oh  !    it's 
the  same  thing,  of  course." 
I  pointed  out  to  her  what  I  wish  now  to  point 
out  to  my  readers  that   very  often  when  one 
hysterical     sign     disappears     under    treatment 
another  replaces  it  if  the  analysis  has  not  com- 
pletely removed  the  repressed  complexes.     Obvi- 
ously here  the  remnants  of  her  repression  were 
still  at  work,  and  brought  out  this  new  symptom 
— to  wit,  wearing  a  halo  instead  of  being  the 
Virgin  Mar\^.     The  symptom  disappeared  that 
day  and  did  not  recur. 


COMPULSION    NEUROSIS  243 

We  had  now  cleared  up  the  major  causes  of 
the  neurosis,  at  any  rate  the  symptoms  had 
suddenly  cleared  up,  and  the  causation  of  them 
was  recognised  by  the  patient  as  lying  in  the 
repressed  material  which  had  come  to  light. 
The  dreams  which  were  now  reported  to  me 
indicated  clearly  that  the  Transference  was  the 
next  thing  which  we  must  analyse.  As  I  have 
before  pointed  out,  during  an  analysis  the  energy 
of  the  repressed  desires  gets  transferred  to  the 
physician,  and  the  patient  in  this  condition, 
though  possibly  free  from  hysterical  symptoms, 
is  now  perhaps  very  fond  of  the  physician  and 
inclined  to  rely  upon  his  judgment  and  help  in 
all  things — a  state  of  affairs  which  must  not  bo 
allowed  to  remain  as  a  permanent  fixation.  In 
other  words  the  "  transference  "  must  be  ana- 
lysed and  the  repressed  energy  sublimated,  or 
turned  into  other  and  useful  channels.  The 
patient  brought  me  the  following  dream  : 

I  was  in  a  small  room  of  which  I  could  see 

one  wall  only — straight  in  front  of  mo.     A 

shutter  in  the  wall  opened  and  a  man  from 

the  outside  rolled  in  a  bright  tin  can.     And 

then  the  shutter  closed  up  and  it  was  dark 

again." 

I  asked  her  emotions  during  the  dream  and  she 

replied  that  they  were  of  pleased  interest. 

To  mv  mind  this  was  obviously  a  dream  be- 


244  COMPULSION    NEUROSIS 

longing  to  the  transference,  and  I  asked  her  to 

give   me    a    few    associations,    which   were    as 

follows  : 

"  The  room  ?  " 

"  It  symbolises  my  mind — a  large  space — 
darkness  and  stars — sky  at  night — the  shut- 
ter in  a  shop — a  butcher's  shop — joints  of 
meat  on  hooks  and  a  man  with  a  blue  apron 
on.  The  room  was  dark — nothing  in  it — 
empty — photography — doing  experiments 
— on  light — I  know  what  it  means  :  the 
room  represents  my  mind  ;  the  tin  can  is  a 
symbol  of  hypnotism — the  mirror  you  use. 
You  were  the  man  outside.  It  represented 
the  idea  of  hypnotic  suggestion  by  you,  and 
the  suggestion  stayed  in  my  mind  when 
the  shutter  was  shut." 

(I  had  used  hypnotism  on  two  occasions  to  assist 

sleep  for  Miss  X.,  as  she  had  been  so  troubled 

with  insomnia.) 

"  The  tin  can  ?  " 

"  I  rather  liked  the  tin  can  being  inside, 
because  I  thought  it  was  something 
interesting." 

"  The  open  shutter?" 

"  A  panel — something  to  slide  up  and  down 
— the   door  open   in   Heaven — a  camera." 

"  The  man." 

"  Stooping — the      shutter      wasn't      wide 


COMPULSION    NEUROSIS  245 

enough — medium  size — fairly  thin — ordi- 
nary clothes — no  hat.  It  was  you  of 
course  helping  me.  ..."     (Pause). 

"  Put  your  mind  on  the  man." 

"  He's  different  now.  I  see  in  his  hands  a 
rolling  pin.  He's  strange  now.  I  don't  think 
I  know  him.  God  is  Love— all  doors  are 
open  to  Him." 

"  A  bright  tin  can  ?  " 

"  A  Jersey  milk  can — one  I  have  on  the 
piano  that  my  brother  sent  me.  Hypno- 
tism. It  was  a  cylindrical  can,  and  I 
thought  it  was  empty.  It  was  brightly 
polished— milk — cradles  for  babies — feed- 
ing bottles.  The  time  when  I  was  small 
and  took  my  brother's  feeding  bottle  from 
him  and  sucked  at  it  myself  when  mother 
wasn't  there." 
Yes.     do  on. 

Rolling*  and  bicycling.  Cycling  down  bill. 
Rolling  pennies  down  an  inclined  plane. 
The  principle  of  Archimedes.  Eureka 
loss  of  weight— me  having  a  bath  it 
suggests  the  man  in  a  bath  and  the  bath 
flowing  over." 

These   associations,   as   well   as   the   dream,   are 

obviously   entirely   sexual,    but    analysis    would 

*Tlie    v.m.i    r   !lini'    i-i    h   re    t\\     e    •■■     ite  1    runl    k    ,1   M^nifii  ant 
associ  'ti'  n  "ii  account  ul  hi  i  nr<  .  i    .  -  '.ctci  ence  to  a  r.  'limy   pin 


246  COMPULSION    NEUROSIS 

get  no  further  than  her  previous  statement, 
that  the  room  was  her  brain,  I  was  the  man, 
the  shutters  of  the  room  opening  represented 
the  opening  of  her  mind  to  receive  the  good 
which  was  represented  by  the  bright  can. 

Now  I  knew  that  the  essential  translation 
had  not  yet  come  to  the  surface,  owing  to  the 
resistance  she  was  offering.  I  was  unwilling 
to  tell  her  the  meaning  of  the  dream  and  asked 
her  to  think  it  over  at  home  and  tell  me  on  the 
next  day  if  she  could  make  anything  else  out 
of  it. 

Meanwhile  I  had  lunch  with  a  friend  and  told 
him  of  this  dream  and  translated  it  as  follows  : 
The  room  was  her  own  reproductive  organs  ; 
the  man  was  myself  ;  the  bright  can  was  the 
male  reproductive  organ.  This  was  confirmed 
by  the  fact  that  she  afterwards  saw  the  man 
with  a  rolling-pin  in  his  hand,  an  obvious  phallic 
symbol.  In  other  words  the  dream  represented 
repressed  and  unconscious  erotic  desires  towards 
the  analyst. 

On  the  next  day  she  came  and  informed  me 
that  she  had  found  the  meaning  of  the  dream. 
She  said  :  "  It  is  a  sex  dream  in  which  the  room 
would  symbolise  the  womb,  and  the  tin  can" 
would  symbolise  the  male  organ,  and  the  shutter 
the  vagina-  the  brightness  of  the  tin  can  a 
desire  for  purity  in  the  man."     I  asked  her  who 


COMPULSION    NEUROSIS  247 

was  the  man,  and  she  said  she  had  not  the  vaguest 
idea.  I  asked  her  what  man  held  the  rolling- 
pin  and  she  told  me  that  she  did  not  remember 
anv  rolling-pin  and  had  not  mentioned  one.  This 
is  an  excellent  example  of  the  resistance  forcing 
unpleasant  truths  into  the  background.  I  then 
asked  her  who  was  the  man  she  had  suggested 
in  the  translation  she  gave  me  yesterday. 
"  Oh  yon  !  "  she  exclaimed,  and  for  a  moment 
scorned  quite  upset.  I  soon,  however,  ex- 
plained the  nature  of  transference  to  her  and 
she  was  at  once  quite  at  ease. 

I  have  said  very  little  about  the  actual  stimuli 
which  determined  the  final  onset  of  the  neurosis, 
but  no  doubt  the  following  facts  had  a  con- 
siderable bearing  on  the  matter.  The  patient, 
though  very  fond  of  her  mother,  was  always 
troubled  in  mind  when  at  home  with  her,  for 
Miss  X.  was  educated  far  beyond  her  mother's 
standard.  A  month  before  the  onset  of  the 
neurosis  the  mother  had  a  relapse  into  her 
previous  state  of  mental  instability,  and  during 
Miss  X.'s  visits  al  home  she  had  to  treat  her 
mother  as  a  child  and  look  after  her  :  at  other 
times  the  mother  was  quite  sane  and  treated 
Miss  X.  as  a  child  :  the  consequence  was,  after 
every  visit  home  at  a  week  end,  Mis-  X.,  who 
at  the  time  was  very  much  overworked,  was 
reduced  to  tears  and  felt  very  ill.     Nor  must  it 


248  COMPULSION    NEUROSIS 

be  overlooked  that  her  menstrual  pains  had 
caused  her  to  go  to  a  gynaecologist  a  few  days 
before  the  onset  of  her  trouble,  and  no  doubt 
his  physical  examination,  questions,  and  so 
forth,  all  touched  upon  the  repressed  complexes 
concerning  contact  with  men  and  tended  to 
make  the  repression  ineffectual.  As  a  defence 
against  these  things  becoming  conscious  Miss  X. 
developed  her  hysteria.* 

A  few  more  sittings  completed  the  case  and 
she  was  perfectly  well  and  happy.  The  last  I 
heard  of  her  was  that  she  felt  better  and  happier 
than  she  had  ever  done  before  and  that  she 
was  glad  she  had  had  her  illness,  as  the  analysis 
had  helped  her  to  understand  herself  and  life 
in  general  in  a  way  in  which  she  had  not  before 
deemed  possible. 

I  have  given  many  trivial  details  in  this  case 
in  order  to  show  how  many  apparently  foolish 
and  trivial  matters  creep  in  during  an  analysis  ; 
how  it  often  looks  as  though  nothing  would  ever 
become  clear  ;  but  how,  by  following  first  one 
thread  and  then  another  we  can  at  length  get 
down  to  the  causation  of  a  trouble. 

Moreover  this  case  is  very  complete  and 
exemplifies  several  points  remarkably  well  : 

(1).      The  reasons  for  a  particular  series  of 

*Miss  X  showed  a  strong  father  fixation,   and  a  great  jealousy  at 
times  towards  her  mother, 


COMPULSION    NEUROSIS  249 

symptoms  appearing,  namely,  the  idea 
of  conception  and  sexual  pleasure  with- 
out the  intervention  of  man. 
(2).  The  change  of  a  symptom  from  one 
form  to  another  as  the  analysis  clears 
away  some  of  the  repressions,  i.e.,  the 
substitution  of  a  halo  for  the  previous 
idea  of  the  Virgin  Mary. 

(3).  The  resistances  that  we  find,  and  parti- 
cularly the  complete  forgetting  of  recent 
events  and  thoughts,  as  in  the  analysis 
of  the  transference  dream  when  resist- 
ance caused  the  patient  to  forget 
important  details  she  had  given  the  day 
before. 

(4).     The  transference  itself  is  well  exemplified. 

(5).  We  sec  clearly  the  repression  of  insoluble 
conflicts  and  the  expression  of  repressed 
wishes  in  the  hysteria  itself. 

To  the  experienced  analyst  many  other  points 
are  apparent  throughout  this  analysis,  which 
space  does  not  permit  one  to  go  into  fully  here. 
There  was  a  strongly  marked  Electra  complex, 
there  was  sexual  aggression  in  infancy  well 
marked  in  two  ways,  namely,  early  masturba- 
tion, and  acts  of  cruelty  to  her  young  brother, 
etc.,  etc.  The  object  of  this  chapter  is  net  bo 
much  to  give  a  lull  analysis  of  the  case-    which 


250  COMPULSION    NEUROSIS 

would  occupy  a  whole  volume — as  to  illustrate 
the  maze  of  material  through  which  one  must 
wander,  and  the  methods  by  which  one  can 
finally  arrive  at  the  underlying  complexes. 


CHAPTER    XII 

Some    Criticisms    of     Psycho-Analysis 

A  great  many  criticsims  have  been  levelled 
against  psycho-analysis,  and  in  all  cases,  so  far 
as  I  have  been  able  to  see,  by  people  who  have 
never  taken  the  trouble  to  study  the  subject 
thoroughly.  They  have  perhaps  read  one  book 
on  the  subject,  or  on  one  branch  of  the  subject 
and  then  without  further  thought  have  made 
criticisms  which  any  one  conversant  with  psycho- 
analysis knows  at  once  to  be  based  upon  a  total 
misconception  of  the  subject  from  first  to  last. 
Exactly  the  same  took  place  when  Darwin 
first  pro  pounded  his  theory  of  evolution,  and 
the  reason  in  both  cases  is  not  far  to  seek. 
Everyone  likes  to  have  a  good  opinion  of  him- 
self ;  he  looks  upon  himself  with  lenient  eyes, 
and  anything  that  at  once  shows  that  his  pride 
in  himself  is  thoroughly  unjustified  is  cast  away 
with  anger  and  scorn.  Man  rationalises  every- 
thing ;  if  he  be  a  total  abstainer  he  will  bring 
what  seems  to  him  absolute  proof  that  alcohol 
is  the  invention  of  the  devil.     If  he  be  a  drinker 

2SI 


2S2     CRITICISMS    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 

of  alcohol  in  small  measure,  then  he  will  justify 
that  by  equally  plausible  reasoning.  If  he  be 
a  Roman  Catholic,  he  will  show  quite  clearly 
that  this  is  the  only  religion  which  may  safely 
steer  any  man  to  Heaven  while  a  member  of 
some  other  church  will,  with  apparently  infallible 
logic,  show  that  the  Pope  and  all  Popish  things 
are  wiles  of  the  devil.  That  which  we  wish  to 
prove  we  rationalise  and,  working  from  imper- 
fect premises,  we  prove  to  ourselves  to  be  true. 
Hence,  when  Darwin  showed  that  our  bodies 
were  not  created  suddenly  by  divine  inter- 
position but  that  they  were  developed  from  a 
lower  form  of  life,  the  insult  to  man's  blatant 
belief  in  himself  and  his  infallible  position  in 
the  universe  was  too  great.  It  created  that 
which  we  have  discussed  in  previous  chapters, 
namely,  a  strong  resistance.  The  proofs  of  the 
unpleasant  material  were  at  once  repressed, 
and  for  a  short  period,  having  rationalised  the 
matter,  man  placidly  believed  his  pleasant  lies. 
The  same  has  happened  in  respect  of  other  novel 
ideas  which  once  were  scorned  and  which  now 
are  accepted,  and  the  same  occurs  in  many 
people  with  regard  to  psycho-analysis.  Psycho- 
analysis shows  them  that  they  are  not  the 
perfect  creatures  which  they  had  supposed 
themselves  to  be.  It  shows  the  saint  that  he 
still    possesses    sex    in    his    unconscious    mind, 


CRITICISMS    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS     2s1, 


:>.-> 


possibly  displaced,  possibly  sublimated  ;  pos- 
sibly it  shows  him  that  he  is  a  sexual  pervert. 
It  shows  the  woman  of  fashion  that  in  many 
ways  she  is  but  a  barbarian  with  an  infantile 
mind.  The  resistance,  the  same  internal  re- 
sistance which  is  met  with  during  every  psycho- 
analysis, prevents  these  people  from  even 
examining  a  subject,  lest  the  truth  should  be 
unpleasant  for  them.  Everywhere  and  every- 
when   they  rationalise. 

These  then  are  some  of  the  reasons  which 
prevented  psycho-analysis  from  gaining  at  once 
the  position  which  it  must  eventually  hold  and 
is  steadily  achieving.  However,  there  are  an 
increasing  number  of  people,  educated  and 
open-minded,  who  are  anxious  not  only  to  find 
the  truth  at  any  cost  but  to  see  the  world 
progressing  and  to  see  the  evil  in  it,  however 
pleasant,  sublimated  into  something  which  may 
be  just  as  pleasant  yet  not  so  deleterious  ;  so 
that  psycho-analysis  has  now  obtained  a  linn 
footing  and  an  ever  widening  circle  of  earnest 
and  scientific  students.  One  or  two  specific 
objections  which  I  have  recently  heard  may 
perhaps  be  mentioned   here  with   advantage. 

Several  people  have  said  to  me  :  '  Psycho- 
analysis is  excellent,  but  it  lacks  anything 
spiritual."  They  seem  to  think  that  in  benefit- 
ing  the   mind  of  a    person   one   must    deal   with 


254     CRITICISMS    OF    iPSYCHO-ANALYSlS 

spiritual  things.  My  reply  is  :  "  Chemical 
analysis  also  lacks  anything  spiritual,  and 
indeed  so  does  almost  every  form  of  analysis." 
From  its  very  nature  analysis  consists  merely 
in  a  scientific  and  precise  investigation  into 
the  component  parts  of  any  thing  or  subject. 
Such  questioners  do  not  realise  the  true  meaning 
of  analysis  and  they  are  apt  to  assume  that 
psycho-analysis  destroys  religion.  In  this  they 
are  absolutely  wrong,  for  the  psycho-analyst 
recognises  that  all  forms  of  religion  are  for  many 
patients  valuable  channels  of  sublimation  and 
he  would  no  more  think  of  trying  to  disturb  a 
patient's  religion  than  a  physician  would  of 
trying  to  disturb  his  patient's  digestion.  More- 
over the  findings  of  psycho-analysis  do  not 
upset  religious  ideas  any  more  than  Darwin's 
findings  in  physical  evolution,  though  like 
Darwin  the  psycho-analyst  may  upset  many 
of  the  non-essential  formulae  and  dogmas.  In- 
deed, one  of  the  chief  things  which  psycho- 
analysis has  done  has  been  merely  to  show 
that  like  the  body  the  mind  has  evolved,  but 
that  as  in  the  body  many  primitive,  rudimentary 
and  at  present  useless  factors  are  present,  and 
that  in  the  psychical  as  well  as  in  the  physical 
plane  of  humanity  evolution  is  still  proceeding. 
The  second  difficulty  which  many  people 
find   is   in   the   theory   of   determinism,   which 


CRITICISMS    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS     255 

Freud,  the  originator  of  psycho-analysis,  ap- 
pears to  believe  in  himself.  By  determinism 
we  mean  that  every  action  and  thought  is  the 
infallible  result  of  a  series  of  previous  actions 
and  thoughts  and  that  there  is  no  free  will. 
In  the  first  place  Freud's  belief  or  otherwise 
in  this  matter  docs  not  in  any  way  affect  the 
main  principles  of  psycho-analysis,  but  is 
purely  personal  to  himself,  and  were  it  proved 
to  be  a  fact  that  there  is  no  free  will,  although 
it  would  certainly  interfere  with  some  people's 
religious  beliefs,  it  would  not  be  likely,  as  many 
infer,  to  alter  in  the  slightest  the  general  con- 
duct of  humanity  nor  make  men  more  inclined 
to  be  criminal,  for  the  simple  reason  that  living 
gregariously  as  they  do  the  majority  of  their 
codes  of  conduct  are  based  upon  mutual  con- 
venience and  happiness  ;  and  if  a  man  said  : 
'  I  have  no  free  will  ;  therefore  there;  is  nothing 
to  prevent  me  from  being  a  thief  and  1  cannot 
help  it  if  I  am  one,"  he  would  nevertheless 
probably  not  become  a  thief  because  of  the 
actions  which  he  has  performed  from  childhood 
in  accordance  with  his  code  and  environment, 
which  would  force  him  to  conform  to  their 
teaching,  for  in  that  way  alone  would  he  gain 
the  greatest  benefit.  Thieves  would  still  be 
thieves  ;  the  honest  man  would  remain  honest. 
But  personally,   I  do  not  accept  the  theory  of 


256    CRITICISMS    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 

determinism  as  fully  proved,  not  because  if  it 
were  true  I  should  be  averse  from  finding  it  to 
be  true,  but  because  so  far  Freud's  evidence 
to  my  mind  is  insufficient  and,  in  fact, 
does  not  prove  it.  Freud's  observations  do 
indeed  show  that  the  majority  of  our  actions 
are  ruled  by  previous  events,  environment, 
etc.,  but  in  some  measure  this  was  already 
known  to  everybody.  If  we  desire  to  walk  from 
one  room  to  the  other  we  practically  do  not  use 
free  will :  there  is  no  debate  on  the  matter  : 
in  the  next  room  food  is  prepared  for  us  ;  we 
are  hungry,  we  feed,  in  much  the  same  way 
as  the  bird  picks  up  its  worm  when  it  is  hungry, 
and  further  back,  the  earth-worm  burrows 
through  the  ground  or  the  unicellular  amoeba 
without  brain  or  nerve  system  b}'  some  subtle 
force  spreads  itself  round  its  food  and  absorbs 
it.  When  we  walk  to  the  station  in  the  morning 
our  legs  move  mechanically  ;  we  do  not  use 
our  free  will  with  a  definite  active  thought  :  one 
leg  must  be  placed  before  the  other  in  order 
to  progress  in  the  desired  direction.  So  through- 
out the  day,  habit,  the  result  of  past  actions  or 
thought,  rules  at  least  99  per  cent,  of  our  lives. 
This  we  know,  but  it  does  not  prove  that  on " 
occasion  we  have  no  free  will.  Freud  has  taken 
us  a  step  further  in  thus  understanding  that 
determinism    is    at    the    basis  of  the  majority 


CRITICISMS    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS     257 

of  actions  in  our  lives  ;  he  shows  that  if  a  man 
is  asked  to  think  of  a  number,  on  analysis  the 
reason  why  he  thought  of  that  number  is 
fairly  easily  found,  and  that  no  other  number 
could  possibly  have  been  chosen  under  the 
circumstances.  He  says  that  when  a  man 
puts  the  wrong  key  into  the  latch  of  his  front- 
door in  an  absent-minded  manner  that  he  could 
not  possibly  have  done  otherwise  :  that  this 
action  is  the  result  of  thoughts  which  have  been 
stirred  by  other  actions  outside  his  control 
during  the  day.  In  the  same  way  when  we 
mentioned  in  the  first  chapter  that  a  house 
surgeon  had  left  his  light  burning  with  the 
unconscious  motive  of  deceiving  his  chief  we 
demonstrated  that  the  action  was  determined 
for  him  and  that  lie  could  not  possibly  have 
done  otherwise. 

Freud  in  his  book  on  the  "  Psychopathology 
of  Everyday  I.ife  "  and  in  other  works  gives 
many  convincing  examples  that  much  in  our 
character,  that  many  of  our  actions  evil  and 
good  are  quite  beyond  our  control  at  any  given 
moment.  But  there  is  one  thing  that  appears 
to  have  been  overlooked,  and  that  is,  that  in 
till  the  examples  given  one  could  not  conceivably 
utilise  free  <,///  in  any  case.  If  I  ask  you  to 
think  of  a  number  what  opportunity  do  you  get 
of  using  your  will  power  ?    If  you  put  the  wrong 


258     CRITICISMS    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 

latch-key  into  the  door  by  accident,  have  you 
made  any  effort  to  use  will  power  ?  When  a 
patient  is  suffering  from  hysteria  due  to  repres- 
sions of  various  kinds,  in  that  particular  matter 
the  will  power  has  already  been  lost.  When  a 
chronic  alcoholic  is  unable  to  cease  from  drink- 
ing it  is  what  we  may  term  the  hysterical  counter- 
will  that  is  working,  or,  if  you  like,  determinism. 
The  will  has  no  opportunity  of  working  then. 
In  all  the  examples  which  Freud  gives  one 
discovers  on  careful  investigation  that  for  some 
reason  or  another  there  is  no  opportunity  for  the 
use  of  free  will.  I  am  not  setting  out  here  to 
prove  that  free  will  exists  ;  I  have  no  evidence 
on  the  matter  :  but  I  am  setting  out  to  show 
that  the  evidence  already  gathered  does  not 
prove  its  non-existence,  but  merely  that  in  the 
majority  of  our  thoughts  we  have  neither  the 
opportunity  to  use,  nor  do  we  use  any  will. 
When  determinism  does  rule  we  may  liken 
it  physically  to  this  :  a  patient  sits  down  and 
crosses  one  leg  over  the  other  and  leaves  his 
leg  hanging  free.  On  tapping  him  smartly 
beneath  the  patella  the  foot  will  kick  ;  the 
knee  jerk  lias  been  elicited.  If  this  is  done 
fifty  times  the  result  will  be  the  same  fifty  times. 
There  is  movement  of  the  leg,  but  this  move- 
ment is  predetermined.  On  the  other  hand 
this  does  not  prove  that  no  other  movement 


CRITICISMS    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS     259 

of  the  leg  is  possible.  Under  the  conditions 
just  given  the  man's  will,  or  the  freedom  of  the 
leg,  is  merely  eliminated  during  that  period. 
Or  again,  we  may  liken  it  to  a  locomotive  stand- 
ing at  the  top  of  a  hill  ;  if  the  brake  be  taken 
off,  the  locomotive  will  run  down  the  hill,  and 
will  do  it  every  time  :  but  this  will  not  prove 
that  did  somebody  happen  to  put  the  brake 
on  half-way  down  the  hill  the  engine  would 
then  cease  to  move.  Yet  again,  the  actions 
which  we  may  ascribe  to  our  will  are  no  doubt 
strictly  limited  by  other  determined  conditions. 
The  man  on  the  engine  may  run  it  backwards  or 
forwards,  but  only  within  the  very  much  pre- 
scribed limits  which  the  rails  allow.  Therefore 
we  may  accept  this  much  determinism,  that  if 
there  be  free  will,  its  action  is  infrequent,  and  its 
capabilities  are  strictly  circumscribed  by  deter- 
minism. 

A  third  objection  to  psycho-analysis  is  equally 
fallacious  with  those  already  quoted.  It  is, 
that  it  is  dangerous  to  show  people  what  evil 
things  exist  within  them  ;  for  by  showing  a  man 
that  he  has,  say,  the  tendency  of  a  thief,  you 
may  make  him  a  thief,  by  showing  him  that  he 
has  sexually  perverted  wishes  in  his  unconscious 
you  may  make  him  a  sexual  pervert.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  the  practice  of  psycho-analysis  has 
already  proved  by  result  that  not  only  is  this 


26o     CRITICISMS    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 

not  the  case,  but  that  in  every  instance  the, 
analysed  person  is  left  stronger,  more  self- 
reliant  and  better  from  every  point  of  view. 
But  a  moment's  thought  would  show  that  if  a 
man's  disgust  of  thieving  or  of  sexual  perversion 
be  so  great  that  he  has  had  the  power  to  banish 
the  tendency  completely  from  his  conscious 
mind,  he  would  certainly  have  enough  of  a  feel- 
ing of  disgust  and  enough  power  to  prevent  him 
from  falling  into  such  errors  consciously,  when 
he  is  fortified  by  his  knowledge  of  the  uncon- 
scious in  that  direction. 

Psycho-analysis  never  gives  a  man  a  tendency 
towards  anything  at  all  ;  it  merely  reveals  to  his 
conscious  mind  the  tendencies  which  he  already 
possesses  and  the  force  of  these  tendencies  is 
lessened  thereby.  Added  to  this  is  the  fact  that  he 
is  no  longer  wasting  psychic  energy  in  an  un- 
conscious and  fruitless  conflict  which  he  does 
not  understand,  but  can  now  direct  his  energy 
in  a  conscious  and  fullv  controlled  manner. 


CHAPTER    XIII 

The     Scope     of     Psycho-Analysis 

In  considering  the  field  which  psycho-analysis 
covers  and  may  cover  in  the  future  one  has  an 
enormous  scope,  which  one  must  unfortunately 
for  the  moment  endeavour  to  restrict,  in  so  far 
as  the  present  discussion  is  concerned. 

Firstly,  and  of  primary  importance  to  readers 
of  this  book,  we  have  the  psycho-therapeutic 
field.  Here  we  are  able  to  cure  the  many  hyster- 
ias and  neuroses  which  have  already  been  dis- 
cussed at  some  length  in  previous  chapters  ; 
added  to  these  we  have  many  conditions  not  so 
commonly  recognised  as  psychoneurotic  in  origin 
—such  for  instance  as  kleptomania,  where  the 
kleptomaniac  has  exactly  the  same  infantile 
repressions  as  the  collector  of  stamps  or  pottery. 
It  is  true  that  one  steals  and  the  other  buys, 
but  the  underlying  psychic  condition,  the  under- 
lying relentless  driving  force  is  exactly  the  same, 
and,  though  the  kleptomaniac  cannot  be  cured 
by  long  terms  of  imprisonment  yet  he  or  she 
in  many  instances  may  be  readily  cured  by 
psychoanalysis.     The  same  applies  to  pyromania 

id  =? 


262    THE    SCOPE    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 

where  we  have  an  obsessional  desire  for  fire, 
whether  it  be  satisfied  by  setting  fire  to  a  hay- 
stack or  to  a  large  building.  Many  a  person  is 
imprisoned  for  this  who  is  no  more  responsible 
for  it  than  a  man  obsessed  with  the  idea  that  he 
must  tread  on  the  cracks  between  the  paving- 
stones.  Again,  drug  habits,  and  in  many  in- 
stances alchoholism  are  traceable  to  the  same 
source — infantile  repressions,  parental  com- 
plexes and  so  forth,  and  what  is  more  important, 
are  curable  by  the  same  means,  viz.  : — psycho- 
analysis. This  does  not  of  course  apply  to  every 
case,  because  habit,  apart  from  environment, 
has  in  many  instances  played  a  part  which  per- 
sists in  spite  of  any  transformation  which 
one  is  able  to  effect  by  analysis  ;  but  certainly  in 
young  adults  most  of  the  obsessions  referred  to, 
which  are  not  generally  classed  as  neuroses, 
are  curable  by  its  means.  We  have  dealt  at  so 
great  length  on  the  cure  of  psycho-neuroses  in  the 
earlier  part  of  this  book  that  it  is  not  necessary 
to  labour  the  point  further  here. 

A  second  field  which  is  now  being  entered 
upon  very  seriously  by  many  educationalists 
is  that  of  the  psycho-analysis  of  children.  Here 
we  not  only  learn  by  the  analysis  of  the  child's 
mind  how  sometimes  terrible  mistakes  are  being 
made  in  its  environment  and  upbringing  but 
we  are  able  to  some  extent  to  eradicate  bad 


THE    SCOPE    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS    263 

traits,  even  those  of  a  trifling  nature  so  often 
found  in  children  such  as  temper,  laziness, 
lying  (a  true  psycho-neurotic  condition)  stealing, 
and  other  tendencies  which  so  often  render  the 
parents  thoroughly  miserable.  The  energy  ex- 
pended on  these  can  be  frequently  turned  into 
the  higher  channels  of  sublimation  by  psycho- 
analysis of  the  child's  mind.  Pfister,  and  other 
analysts,  have  in  part  the  honour  of  having 
organised  this  kind  of  work  in  Switzerland  as  a 
part  of  the  education  of  children.  Other  coun- 
tries are  taking  the  matter  up,  though  slowly, 
and  it  will  probably  be  some  time  before  its 
enormous   educational    value   is   realised. 

Apart  from  the  actual  analysis  of  children 
we  have  perhaps  a  greater  field  still  in  adopting 
prophylactic  measures  as  the  result  of  psycho- 
analysis. Thus  even  in  the  short  scope  of  this 
book  we  have  disclosed  several  important  points. 
Excessive  kissing  and  physical  signs  of  affection 
on  the  part  of  parents  and  others  should  be 
avoided  from  infancy.  Children  should  not  be 
encouraged  to  show  off  before  strangers,  nor  to 
expose  themselves  for  admiration  in  the  bath, 
etc.,  on  every  possible  occasion,  as  is  so  often 
the  ease.  Children  of  both  sexes  should  be 
taught  naturally  and  simply  the  true  farts  of 
sex— fur  plants,  animals  and  men,  and  should 
not   be  tani'ht    to  view    them  with  disgust,   but 


264    THE    SCOPE    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 

with  a  sane  idea  of  control  of  appetite.  Child- 
ren whether  of  the  same  or  the  opposite  sex 
should  not  be  allowed  to  share  bedrooms  and 
more  particularly  beds  with  other  children  (nor 
with  their  parents)  even  at  the  age  of  two  years. 
Children  of  both  sexes  should  be  brought  up  on 
identical  lines,  and  an  artificial  differentiation  in 
games,  clothing  and  habits  should  not  be  forced 
upon  them  ;  indeed,  it  would  be  better  for 
humanity  if  the  artificial  differentiation  did  not 
even  come  at  puberty.  Constipation  in  children 
stimulates  the  anal-erotic  impulses,  but  it 
should  not  be  treated  by  means  of  enemas. 
Children  should  not  be  allowed  artificial  teats  to 
suck  it  stimulates  the  labial-erotic  and  possibly  the 
masturbatory  impulses.  On  the  other  hand 
physical  punishment  in  young  children  is  liable 
to  be  very  harmful  in  stimulating  the  aggressive, 
sadistic  and  masochistic  impulses  ;  and  children 
should  under  no  circumstances  be  frightened  by 
bogies,  policemen,  and  so  forth. 

A  third,  and  perhaps  in  some  ways  an  even 
greater  field  where  psycho-analysis  is  and  will 
be  of  increasing  importance  is  in  its  influence 
on  the  everyday  life  of  mankind.  Already 
the  science  has  confirmed  irrefutably  some  of  the' 
vague  suppositions  which  many  had  felt  rather 
than  expressed  in  words  as  regards  the  relation- 
ship of  the  sexes,  and  it  will  no  doubt  be  a  guide 


THE   SCOPE   OF   PSYCHO-ANALYSIS      265 

in  future  in  the  evolution  of  civilisation.     This 
is  a  point  upon  which  I,  perhaps,  as  a  physician 
should  not  in  this  book  lay  too  much  stress  ; 
nevertheless,  as  a  help  to  those  who  are  reading 
it  rather  from  the  broader  point  of  view  of  soci- 
ology than  from  that  of  pure  medical  treatment, 
it  may  be  well  to  touch  on  one  of  the  points  that 
obviously  arise.     We  know  that  of  recent  years, 
for    instance,    the   question   of  women's   votes, 
and  even  more  recently,  of  women's  equality  of 
pay  with  men  have  come  to  the  forefront,  but 
these  when  viewed  from  the  point  of  psycho- 
analysis are  merely  straws  in  the  wind.     What 
we  find  underlying  this  is  the  greatest  paradox 
in  life.     We  find  a  civilised  world  in  which  the 
code,  the  teaehing,  the  religion  says  that  sexual 
matters  shall  be  taboo,  shall  be  relegated  to  the 
background,  shall  be  driven  from  the  mind  as 
far  as  possible,   and  so   forth  ;    yet   this  same 
world  devotes  nine-tenths  of  its  energy  to  in- 
creasing the  attraction  between  the  sexes,  the 
pleasure  to  be  obtained  by  their  intercourse,  and 
in  fact,  by  adding  as  much  artificial  differen- 
tiation over  and  above  that  which  nature  has 
itself  bestowed  as  is  humanly  possible,  with  the 
appalling  result  that,  while  it   teaches  morality 
it  breeds  most   potent  forms  of  perversion  and 
immorality  as  fast  as  it  can.     It  is  not  desirable 
to  go  into   details  here  ;    one  might   devote  a 


266    THE    SCOPE    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 

volume  to  the  subject.  Let  us  take  a  few  of  the 
simplest  distinctions  made  between  the  sexes. 
There  is  no  objective  reason,  saving  that  of 
propagation  of  the  species,  why  a  male  should 
be  addressed  as  Mr.  and  a  female  as  Miss,  why 
male  names  should  be  of  one  type  and  female 
names  of  another.  The  postman  would  find  as 
easily  the  owner  of  an  initial  and  an  address, 
or  at  the  utmost  two  initials.  //  is  merely  that 
we  are  striving  at  the  first  and  earliest  oppor- 
tunity to  make  a  differentiation  and  to  keep  it 
in  mind !  At  our  dinner  parties  again,  there 
is  no  essential  intellectual  reason  why  male  and 
female  should  be  alternated  round  the  table. 
From  the  highest  point  of  view,  or,  if  you  like, 
from  the  most  interesting  point  of  view,  any 
two  persons  who  have  a  common  topic  of  con- 
versation should  sit  next  to  one  another,  irre- 
spective of  sex,  though  this  sex,  it  will  be  ob- 
served, is  thrust  upon  them  willy  nilly.  One 
often  notices  too,  how  what  is  termed  courtesy 
towards  the  weaker  sex  is  not  courtesy  but 
etiquette,  and  is  really  something  quite  apart 
from  true  unselfishness.  For  instance  I  have 
many  times  seen  a  man,  possibly  suffering  from 
varicose  veins  or  some  other  disability,  offer 
his  seat  in  a  tram  to  a  woman — perhaps  a  girl — 
in  the  bloom  of  health,  carrying  a  hockey  stick, 
and    obviously  suffering  from  no   disability  at 


THE    SCOPE    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS    267 

the  moment.  His  real  attitude  is  exemplified, 
however,  when  the  woman  less  trammelled  than 
some,  politely  refuses  to  recognise  a  disability 
by  taking  the  offered  seat.  It  will  often  then  be 
observed  that  the  man  also  refuses  to  sit  down, 
and  indeed  may  become  quite  angry.  1 1  is  real 
concern  is  not  that  the  woman  is  standing,  but 
for  his  position  in  the  eyes  of  the  other  passen- 
gers and  even  much  more  so  for  the  position  of 
his  sex  as  a  superior  type,  which  can  afford  to 
give  away  small  mercies.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
it  is  obvious  to  any  psycho-analyst,  or  indeed  to 
anyone  who  has  nullified  his  infantile  repressions 
and  early  associations  by  conscious  self-exami- 
nation, that  real  chivalry  is  not  a  question  of 
such  minor  matters  as  what  one  sex  gives  to 
another,  but  what  youth  gives  to  age  or  strength 
to  weakness  irrespective  of  sex  ;  and  one  does 
not  wonder  that  some  women  who  have  the  cause 
of  their  sex  at  heart  feel  insulted  by  the  manner 
in  which  they  are  treated  in  these  and  similar 
respects,  for  it  is  because  they  realise  intuitively 
rather  than  consciously  that  there  is  something 
unpleasant  in  the  unconscious  that  i^  the  cause 
of  the  play-acting. 

When  we  look  round  we  realise  that  a  very 
large  number  of  our  shops,  our  habits,  our  very 
lives  indeed  are  devoted  to  an  exhibition  of  the 
charms  of  woman.     They   may   appeal   to   the 


268    THE    SCOPE    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 

heterosexual,  the  homo-sexual  or  the  auto-sex- 
ual, and  in  most  cases,  as  will  be  understood  by 
those  who  have  read  the  earlier  chapters  of  this 
book,  they  certainly  involve  infantile  sexual 
perversions,  though  it  is  true  that  these  per- 
versions are  not  generally  recognised  as  such, 
for  the  very  simple  reason  that  no  person  easily 
recognises  his  own  complexes  ;  in  those  things 
in  which  he  deceives  himself  he  is  deceived  by 
others.  There  is  no  doubt  that  those  who  have 
had  what  may  be  called  "  The  Women's  Move- 
ment "  at  heart  have  seen  something  of  this, 
and  one  is  inclined  to  prophecy  that  these  same 
people  or  their  descendents  will  see  to  it  that 
moral  education  takes  such  steps  and  makes 
such  changes  as  to  ensure  that  the  woman  of  the 
future  is  not  differentiated  from  the  man  either 
as  regards,  clothing,  business  remuneration  or 
anything  else  artificial.  They  will  realise  that 
the  extra  energy  of  sex  is  not  to  be  displaced  as 
it  is  at  present,  but  should  be  sublimated  ;  that 
there  will  always  remain  enough  of  unsublimated 
sex  to  propagate  the  species  and  carry  on  the 
race  to  yet  higher  ideals.  One  may  quote  from 
the  women's  pages  of  our  evening  newspapers  or 
call  attention  to  the  clothing  exhibited  in  many- 
of  our  shops,  where  such  points  as  I  have 
mentioned  are  so  obvious  that  the  least  intelli- 
gent would  see   their  truth.     It  is  where  the 


THE    SCOPE    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS    269 

exaggeration  is  not  so  great  and  where  the  mind 
has  become  accustomed  to  a  certain  condition  of 
things,  that  the  truth  is  not  readily  recognised. 
For  instance,  a  woman  whose  exhibition  tendency 
is  not  great,  will  decry  a  decollete  neck  of  say, 
six  inches  all  round  ;  and  possible  a  woman 
wearing  such  a  decollete  neck  will  decry  a  woman 
wearing  a  frock  which  leaves  the  whole  of  the 
back  bare.  In  each  case  the  principle  remains 
the  same  ;  it  is  merely  a  question  of  degree, 
and  it  is  only  by  analysis  (not  necessarily  by  an 
analyst,  but  sometimes  by  self-analysis  alone,) 
that  the  fact  of  these  most  unpleasant  home 
truths  is  borne  in  upon  one. 

In  these  facts  we  may  also  see  at  least  one  of 
the  reasons  why  so  few  women  attain  to  great- 
ness in  either  the  sciences  or  arts,  etc.  It  is  not 
that  they  lack  intellect,  they  often  have  the 
same  powers  of  understanding  as  their  brothers. 
It  is  that  they  lack  psychic  energy  behind  their 
non-erotic  ideas.  So  much  of  their  energy  is 
wasted  on  displaced  erotic  ideas,  that  they  have 
not  sufficient  energy  left  for  the  sublimated 
forms  to  compete  with  the  sublimated  oicrgy 
of  men.  It  is  true,  men's  eroticism  is  more  open 
and  less  displaced,  and  therefore  more  noticeable 
to  the  community,  but  it  is  in  fact  women  who 
devote  the  greatest  percentage  of  psychic  energy 
to  erotic  matters.     And  until  women  aim  more 


270    THE    SCOPE    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 

at  sublimation  and  less  at  displacement,  they 
are  not  likely  to  gain  the  equality  to  which 
they  are  entitled,  in  fact— the  equality  in  work 
and  in  achievement,  which,  for  instance  the 
horse  and  the  mare  already  possess. 

Arising  out  of  this  one  strongly  recommends 
women  who  intend  to  become  psycho-analysts 
to  be  analysed  themselves,  in  the  first  instance 
by  a  man — because  I  have  noticed  in  one  or 
two  women  analysts  whom  I  know  personally 
that  they  still  possess  many  of  their  complexes 
in  the  unconscious  condition,  and  are  therefore 
unable  to  analyse  them  in  others.  On  this 
account,  I  have  on  one  or  two  occasions  had  to 
re-analyse  a  woman  patient  who  had  failed  to 
recognise  complexes  which  her  analyst  also 
possessed.  It  arises  of  course  from  the  fact 
that  women  have  so  much  more  repressed  mater- 
ial, and  so  much  greater  resistance  than  the 
normally  educated  man. 

We  pride  ourselves  on  being  civilised,  and 
having  thrust  the  primitive  barbarian  far  from 
us,  but  in  fact  our  evolution  has  but  reached  a 
halfway  house,  and  in  many  respects  we  are 
more  perverted  than  some  of  the  South  Sea 
islanders,  because  we  have  taken  much  of  the 
energy  which  they  must  still  devote  to  self- 
preservation  and  side-tracked  it  into  erotic, 
channels. 


The  scope  of  psycho-analysis  271 

Not  that  this  phase  through  which  humanity 
has  passed  in  the  last  few  thousand  years  has 
been  without  its  value  in  evolution.  Ego- 
centricity,  selfishness,  exaggerated  and  artificial 
sex  differences  have  all  contributed  to  the 
hastening  of  intellectual  evolution. 

The  first  great  instinct  necessary  for  physical 
evolution  was  that  of  self-preservation.  When 
such  a  type  (as  man)  was  produced,  that  self- 
preservation  in  its  primordial  sense  called  for 
less  energy  and  that  energy  was  placed  elsewhere. 
Selfishness,  self-gratification,  became  the  ruling 
instinct,  and  intellect  was  developed  out  of  it. 
Self-gratification  said  :  "I  want  more  corn- 
comfort,"  and  a  bed  was  invented  ;  "  I  want 
yet  more  comfort  "  and  a  motor  car  resulted. 
The  intellect  was  used  and  trained  by  this  ego- 
centric instinct  of  which  artificial  sex  differen- 
tiation was  a  part. 

But  now  that  this  has  been  accomplished,  the 
ego-centric  impulses  lose  their  communal  value, 
a  higher  or  psychic  development  is  in  progress, 
and  as  self-preservation  instincts  have  become 
but  trivial  in  man,  so  these  other  ego-centric 
instincts  are  being  undermined,  and  this  is 
part  of  the  training  of  psychic  evolution.  Sub- 
limation, not  displacement,  is  the  end  in  view. 

As  for  the  psychic  energy  itself,  whence  it 
comes  and  what  it  is  we  have  no  evidence.      It 


272    THE    SCOPE    OF    PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 

may  be  that  it  is  ultimately  a  transformation  of 
physical  energy.  We  have  not  even  evidence 
that  we  derive  it  from  our  food  ;  for  all  we  know 
it  may  come  from  outside,  for  it  is  obvious  in  the 
experiments  in  telepathy  I  described  in  the 
first  chapter  that  it  can  pass  between  indivi- 
duals through  space,  without  contact.  There 
are  many  and  varied  speculations,  and  I  only 
mention  them  here  as  a  warning  against  dog- 
matism. Some  psycho-analysts  have  assumed 
that  no  energy  can  come  except  from  the  food 
we  eat.  It  may  be  so  ;  but  there  is  no  evidence. 
Negative  evidence  is  not  evidence  at  all  ;  the 
only  way  to  progress  is  to  keep  an  open  mind  ; 
and  at  present  the  ultimate  source  of  psychic 
energy  is — nescio. 


IRINTKD  IN  GREAT   BRITAIN   AT  THE   DEVONSHIRE  PRESS,   TORQUAY 


INDEX 


Abre action,   io6,   173 

Actual  Neuroses,    131 

Aggression,  43 

Aggression,        in        compulsion 
neurosis,   156 

Agoraphobia,    147 

Alcoholism,    23 

Alcoholism,    in        compulsion 
neurosis,    161 

Alcoholism  in  exhibitionism,  102 

Alcoholism     in     homosexuality, 
102 

Alcoholism    in    narcissism,     102 

Anal  Eroticism,  52,  68,  90,  91 

Anal  Eroticism  anil  dreams,  124 

Anal     Eroticism     in     folie     du 
doutc,  159 

Analysis  of  dreams,    116 

Anus,    50 

Anxiety  Hysteria,   132,   143 

Anxiety     Hysteria,    sexual    dis- 
turbance in,    1. 13 

Anxiety     Hysteria,     signs     and 
symptoms,    143 

Anxiety  Neuroses,   131,   166 

Anxiety  Neuroses,  breathing  in, 
171 

Anxiety  Neuroses,  causes  of,  167 

Anxiety    Neuroses,    characteris- 
tics of,   1 68 

Anxiety     Neuroses,     mechanism 
of,    167 

Anxiety  Neuroses,  treatment  of, 
1  ~  z 

Artificial  sex  differentiation 
87,  264,  263 

Association,  1 ,  6,  10 

Association   method,    180 

Association     method,     typs 
reaction,   187 

Automatic  writing,  161,  211 


--,>. 


oi 


Automatic   writing,   analysis  of, 

223 
Automatic  writing,  example  of, 

218 
Autosexuality,    36,   39 
Autosexuality   in    women,    50 

B. 

Beauty,    57,     130 
Bisexuality,  37,  44,  52,  56.  87  91 
Blood-pressure  in  anxiety  neur- 
osis, 171,  175 
Blood-pressure  in   neurasthenia, 

177 
Breathing   in  anxiety   neuroses, 


C. 


Censor,   73,    in,    ir8 
Censor,  when  careless,  124 
Character,    lormation  of,    75 
Chemio-taxis,  48 
Child,  analysis  of,  262 
Child,    desires    unrepressed,    107 
Child,    dreams    of,    1  10 
Child,  education  of.    27,   262 
Child,  eldest,   104 
Child,  only   104,    152 
Child,  phantasies,   108,   1  - 3 
Claustrophobia,    147 
Cloaca!    Eroticism,    88 
Coitus    interruptus,    i*.s 
Coitus  reservatus,  i(>S 
Complex,  1  1,  54,  73 
Complex,  Ehctra,  77 
Complex,  Homosexual,  82 
Complex,      "  lnt<  Hi-,  m  e,         1  S3 
Complex,  Nareis- i-  in     97 
Complex,  Nude. 11,   77 
Complex,    lEdipus,    77 


*7Z 


274 


INDEX 


Compulsion     hysteria  (see  com- 
pulsion neurosis) 
Compulsion  neurosis,  93,  132,  156 
Compulsion    neurosis,  origin   of, 

156 
Compulsion  neurosis,  case  of,  210 
Condensation    in    dreams,     119 
Constipation,    51,    175,    164 
Constipation  in  anxiety  neuroses, 

172 
Constipation,    in   compulsion 

neuroses,    159 
Conversion  hysteria,    134 
Conversion     hysteria,    case    of, 

135.  138 
Conversion  hysteria,  like  dreams 

140,   142 
Conversion  hysteria,  mechanism 

of,  135 
Conversion  hysteria     signs  and 

symptoms,    142 


D. 


Delusions,   in   compulsion   neur- 
osis,  157 
Delusions,  in  paranoid  hysteria, 

1.57 
Dementia  praecox,  132,  166 
Desires,  repression  of,   107 
Determinism,   254 
Displacement,  23,  57,  58,   115 
Displacement,  definition    of,   71 
Displacement,    in    dreams,    11S 
Dissociation,  9,   129 
Dreams,   105 

Dreams,   analysis   of,    116 
Dreams  of  anxiety,  169 
Dreams,  Children's,   no 
Dream-;,  condensation   in,  119 
Dreams,  death  of  parent,  84,  124 
Dreams,     displacement    in,    118 
Dreams,    emotions    in,     113 
Dreams,  functions  of,   109 
Dreams  incestuous,  84,  85 
Dreams,  Jung's  conception  of,  1 13 
Dreams,   mechanism  of,    112 
Dreams,  on  the  same  nipht,  124 
Dreams  in  psychoanalysis,    105, 

in,    197 


Dreams,    reduplication,  122 
Dreams,  repetition  of  fact,   106 
Dreams,  sublimation   in,   114 
Dreams,  symbolism  in,  126,  127 
Dreams,  telepathic,    106 
Dreams,     in    transference,     243 
Dreams,  types  of,  105 
Dreams  vary  with  age,  no,  116 
Dreams  of  war,  1 70,  1 74 
Dreams,  wish  fulfilment  in,  109, 

n  1,  123 
Drug  habits,   23 
Drug  habits  and  narcissism,  102 
Drug  habits  in  compulsion  neur- 
osis,  161 
Dual  personality,  n 


E. 

Education,  27,  262 
Electra  complex,  77 
Electra  complex  in  dreams,  125 
Emotions,  development  of,    130 
Erogenous  Zones,  50 
Erotic  impulses,  36,  42 
Erotic  impulses,  fate  of  63 
Exhibitionism,    54,    55 
Exhibitionism,  fate  of  63 
Exhibitionism,  sublimation  of,69 


F. 


Fetishism,   definition  of,    72 
Fixation  on  parents,  77,  86 
Fixation  on  brother  or  sister,  86 
Folic  dn  doute,  84,  90,   158 
Folic  du  doute,  complexes  in  158 
Free  association,  116,   180 
Functional  diseases,  129 
Functional     diseases,     classifica- 
tion of,   131 
Functional  diseases,   mechanism 
of,  130 


G. 


Guilt,  in  GEdipus  complex,  84,  93 


INDEX  275 


IT.  Memory,  association  of,  3 

Memory,  types  of,  2 
Habit,    14,   256,   262  Modesty,   58 

Hearing,    an    erotic   impulse,  60       Monosexuality,  36 
Heredity,    42,    94  Mouth,   53 

Hermaphroditism,    38 

Heterosexuality,  40  X. 

Heterosexuality  and  narcissism, 

101 
Homosexuality,  38,  40 
Homosexuality,     inverted,    91 


Narcissism,  07 

Narcissism    and    homosexuality 
101 
,  paranoid  1  Narcissism,    and    its    effect     on 

stena,  163    "  "  character,    100,    102 

Homosexuality  in  women,  50,67,        Narcissism,    phantasy    ,n,    99 

-  -  '     •'       '  I  Vi.llP'it         HHin  TOO  T~l. 


Neurasthenia,  132,  170 
Neurasthenia,   charactc riMics   of 


81 
Homosexuality,  narcissistic  cau- 

Homosexuality,  parental  causes,  Neurasthenia,  origin  of  17C 

g  •  jSeurasthenm,  treatment   of 

Homosexuality,   sublimation  of,  Nuclear  complexes,  77 

Si 
I  Ivpnosis,  5,  202 

Hysteria,    130  ,., 

Hysterical  daydreams,    143,    144  Obsessions,   157 

(Ldipus  complex,  77 

j  Oral    eroticism,    53 

Over-determination,    1 16 
Incest,    75 

Infantile   sexuality,    39  p 


O 


Pain,  43 

Paranoid  hysteria,    132,    102 

fealousv  in  (Edipus  complex   83        Paranoid  hysteria, mechanism  of, 

1  -'  103 


90,   03,    153 


Paranoid  hysteria,  type  s  of,    1(14 

.-  Parent;  1  influence,  20,  7.5,8c),  104 

Patients  suitable  foi  analv  i'  ,  :<>- 

Kleptomania,   161  Perversion,  definition  of,'  f.o,    71 

Perversion,     not     always     ivroi 
'-■  nised,   82 

Latent    period,   no  Phantasy,   14, 

Libido      '8  Phantasy  in  children,    108 

Low,  alternating  with  hate    8.1         Phantasy    in    narri^ism,    00 

03  n«ty,  .I" 

Love  type,  choice  of,  77,  -S    101        Phobias,    143,    i.,6 
Lovetype, choice. if,  example*.,  Kq       Phobias  m  compulsion  nenro'.es 

1  5 , 
\[  Phol 'ias,   mechanism  of,    14S 

Phobias,  subst  it  ute<|,    1  >< 
Masochism,   45,    264  Phol,:..-     uiMil/tit ut< d.  14*.    147 

Memory,   1  1  -0 


276 


INDEX 


Primary  sexual  aims,  41 

Primitive  sexual  impulses,  45 

Projection,  59 

Projection  in  paranoid  hysteria, 
162 

Projection  in  a  phobia,  150,  153 

Psychic  energy,  21,  271 

Psychic  energy,  displacement  of, 
23.    63 

Psychic  energy,  dual  manifes- 
tations of,  46 

Psycluc  energy,  and  physical 
energy,   24 

Psychic  energy,  source  of,  28 

Psychoanalysis,  criticisms  of,  251 

Psychoanalysis,  general  manage- 
ment of,  192 

Psychoanalysis  in  anxiety  neur- 
osis, 172 

Psychoanalysis  in  neurasthenia, 
178 

Psychoanalysis,  CEdipus  com- 
plex  in,    79 

Psychoanalysis  and  religion,  253 

Psychoanalysis,  scope  of,  261 

Psychoanalysis,  and  social  evo- 
lution, 264 

Psychoanalysis, technique  of,  180 

Psychoanalysis,  transference  in, 
198 

Psychoneuroses,  73,  131 

Psychoneuroses   in    families,    94 

Psychoneuroses,  mechanism    of, 

133 
Psychoneuroses,    more   common 

in  women,  87 
Pyromania,  160 

R. 

Rationalisation,  251 
Reduplication    in    dreams,     121 
Regression,  definition  of,  70,   71 
Regression,    narcissistic,    102 
Repression,  6,  107,  108 
Repression,  definition   of,  69,  71 
Repression  and  dreams,  107 
Repression  duiing  analysis,  247 
Repression  in  latent  period,  no 
Repression  and  psychoneuroses, 

*33 


Sadism,  45,  264 
Sexual  aims — primary,  41 
Sexual  anaesthesia,  80,  81,  92,  130 
Sexual  desire,  energy  of,  22 
Sexual  development  ;    latent  pe- 
riod, no 
Sexual  development  ;  stages  in, 

no 
Sexual  impotence  (psychic),  80, 

89,  123,  125,  162 
Sexual  impulses — see  Erotic  im- 
pulses 
Shame,  58 

Shell-shock,  8,  168,  201 
Shell-shock.homosexuality  in,  175 
Shell-shock,    treatment   of,    173 
Smelling,  an  erotic  impulse,   60 
Sublimation,  23,  26,  57,  69,  108 

268 
Sublimation,   definition  of,  71 
Sublimation  in  analysis,  199,  233 
Sublimation  in  dreams,  114 
Sublimation  of  homosexnalitv,8i 
Symbolic  displacement,  53 
Symbolism,  in  dreams,  126,  245, 

246 
Symbolism,    in    hysteria,    227 
Symbolism,    in    phobias,    150 


Telepathy,  13,  15,  106 
Touch — physical  contact,  47 
Transference,  26 
Transference    in    analysis,     198, 

243 

U. 

Unconscious    physiological    con- 
trol, 13 
Unconscious    reasoning,     7,     13 
Unconscious  will,  7,  12 

V. 

Vital  continuity.  Instinct  of,  21, 
29 

W. 

Women  Psychoanalysts,  270 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
Los  Angeles 

This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


H  M 


.era  H 


^KV 


j\lttV 


9M 


Form  L9-Series4939 


A    001  362  674    2 


